


Close Your Eyes (And Count To Eight)

by WildflowerWoods



Series: Stories For A Rainy Day [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Canon Rewrite, Canon-Typical Violence, Dysfunctional Family, Families of Choice, Found Family, No Incest, Not Canon Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, forced family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:21:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25769605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WildflowerWoods/pseuds/WildflowerWoods
Summary: On the twelfth hour of the first day of October, 1989, forty three women around the world gave birth. This was unusual only in the fact that none of these women had been pregnant when the day first began.Sir Reginald Hargreeves, eccentric billionaire and adventurer resolved to locate and adopt as many of the children as possible.He got Eight of them.Well, Seven miracle babies and One normal one.
Relationships: Klaus Hargreeves/David "Dave" Katz, The Hargreeves Family
Series: Stories For A Rainy Day [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1907395
Comments: 19
Kudos: 40





	1. Headcount

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, this is a tester chapter to see how people react. 
> 
> Please leave a comment to let me know what you liked if you want more.

“Priority One, for _all_ agents, is to Eliminate the Hargreeves.” The Handler stated. “ _All_ of them.”

“Uh, do you mean all of the agents or all of the Hargreeves?”

“I want the Hargreeves dead or captured. All eight of them. I don’t care as long as they’re out of my way. Give them the rundown.”

“Right. Here’s what we’ve got on the Hargreeves so far. It- it isn’t much.” Herb pressed a button on his remote and the slide-show started. “As the Handler said, there are eight Hargreeves siblings, with varying powers and abilities.”

_Click._

**Number One “Luther” Hargreeves.** The screen read. **Spaceboy.** Underneath the writing was a picture of a giant Caucasian man with blond hair.

“Number One has Super-strength. He could easily lift and throw a full grown man when he was twelve. With his physiology more ape-like, he is now stronger than ever and incredibly resilient. In the 2019 raid on the Umbrella Academy, Hazel and Cha-Cha dropped a giant chandelier on him and he was fine. 1963 apocalypse-that-wasn’t he survived a missile without much injury. Suggested take down method is to drop a building on him.”

_Click._

**Number Two “Diego” Hargreeves. The Kraken.** The picture on the second side showed a Latino man dressed in what looked like BDSM gear over a black turtle neck.

“Number Two can manipulate the trajectory of everything he throws, and has recently shown the ability to redirect things thrown or fired at him. In the 1963 apocalypse-that-wasn’t, he redirected the bullets shot at him back towards the agents that pulled the trigger. He also noted to be able to hold his breath indefinitely. Suggested take down method is to break his arms.”

_Click._

**Number Three “Allison” Hargreeves. The Rumour.** The third picture was a black woman on a red carpet.

“Number Three can alter reality. As long as she starts a sentence with ‘I heard a rumour’ whatever she says next will become true. 1963 apocalypse-that-wasn’t, she blew up several agents’ heads with the phrase ‘I heard a rumour I blew your minds’. Suggested take down method is blunt force to her trachea.”

_Click._

**Number Four “Klaus” Hargreeves. The Séance.** There were two men in the picture that time, both dressed in an army uniform.

“Number Four, the one on the right, can commune with and summon the dead. I don’t think I need to go into why this particular ability is dangerous. He can also levitate and possesses telekinetic abilities, though it is unknown if it is him doing those things or ghosts doing them for him. It is also noted that he served in the Vietnam war in 1968. If you are aiming to kill the Hargreeves rather than capture, eliminate Four first. Suggested take down method is to target his partner, David Katz, the man on the left.”

_Click._

**Number Five Hargreeves. The Boy.** Five was a boy in a school uniform, glaring at the camera.

“Number Five is the one we know the most about. His basic power is the ability to jump through space. However, he also possesses the ability to time travel without a briefcase, if not very well. He has beyond genius level intelligence and was one of us. Therefore, he knows all of our protocols and security measures. Suggested take down measure is to eliminate his family first.”

_Click._

**Number Six “Ben” Hargreeves. The Horror.** Six was dressed in black, a hood obscuring his face.

“Number Six has the ability to summon eldritch tentacles from a portal in his stomach. It is unknown if he can summon a full eldritch being or not. It is suspected that an attempt to summon a full eldritch being is what killed him the first time. Before the Hargreeves went back and rewrote his death of course. Suggested take down measure is a head shot from a distance.”

_Click._

**Number Seven “Vanya” Hargreeves. The White Violin.** Seven was a small woman with mouse brown hair and an oversized shirt.

“Number Seven is the most powerful with the least amount of control. Her abilities are varied and mostly unknown but appear to rely on contact with sound and her emotional state. Her basic power appears to be the ability to manipulate sound waves and utilise them for things such as flight and telekinesis. Suggested take down measure is to get her to an area with reduced sound.”

_Click._

**Number Eight “Elizabeth” Hargreeves. The Control** ~~ **ler**~~ **.** The eighth picture was a Latino woman looking distinctly unimpressed with the photographer.

“Number Eight has no special abilities that we are aware of. All records and observations point to her being an ordinary human being. However, her code name implies an ability to control the other seven. Assume she is as dangerous as the other seven. Suggested take down measure is to catch her alone."

_Click._

The screen changed to show one of all eight Hargreeves together, One at the back looming over them all with Five scowling at the very front. Three, Six and Seven were to One's right, with Three being the closest. Four, Eight and Two were on his left, with Eight clearly stopping Two from lunging at One.

“One through Six are all highly trained in multiple martial arts and fighting styles. They are all highly skilled with their powers and abilities. Seven shows no physical prowess at all, purely relying on her powers in a fight. Eight’s fighting skills appear to be mostly self taught and involve quite a bit of biting, hair pulling and clawing.

“Unfortunately, we can’t go back in time and eliminate them before the 2019 apocalypse they diverted as they’re important to the time line. However, this means that they were all supposed to die during, before or right after the apocalypse so their very presence is disrupting the time line. Capture is preferred over death, as we may find a use for them later, but the utmost priority is removing them as a threat."

* * *

The Hargreeves would like it noted that it was never their intention to fuck up the time stream. All they wanted to do was stop the apocalypse, prevent their brother's death and live their lives.

Unfortunately, Life, Fate, the World and God had other plans.


	2. Count The Cost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title is from a Doctor Who quote;
> 
> Demons run  
> But count the cost  
> The battle is won  
> But the child is lost.

“You seen the news?” was the first thing Diego heard as he opened the door to the room he called home.

“Don’t you have your own place?” He asked, glancing at Elizabeth and Klaus, the former sat in the chair while the latter was passed out in his bed.

“Yeah, but I caught Klaus on his way out of rehab and your place was closer.” Elizabeth replied “You know what he’s like. At least this way you can get a good night’s sleep without worrying that every overdosed junkie found dead in a ditch that you hear about through the police radio you definitely don’t have is Klaus.” He glared at her. How did she even know about that?

“The bed isn’t big enough for three people.” Diego eventually stated. “You know that.”

“That’s why I left a sleeping bag here last time. I’ll take the floor.”

“Oh no. You brought him here. You get to deal with the bony limbs kicking you in the night.”

“But, Diego, it’s your home.” She had a hand on her chest, just under her throat as she spoke in a mock offended/upset voice. “What sort of monster would I be to deny you your own bed?”

“Elisabet.” She smirked, dropping the charade.

“Fine. How about we give Klaus the sleeping bag?”

“No. I’ll take the sleeping bag. You can share with Klaus because you _both_ kick in your sleep and I have enough bruises.”

* * *

The room was quiet as Diego and Elizabeth both fell asleep, the only sound in the air the hum of the boiler and the sound of his three living sibling’s breathing. It was times like these that Ben wished he could sleep. They were safe, secure. There was no need to keep watch. No chance he’d have to wake Klaus up in a panicked rush or that they’d have to move. Even if Klaus did wake up, there was no way he’d be able to leave without waking either Diego or Elizabeth. Nobody was going anywhere until the morning. For the first time in months—since the last time one of their siblings had dragged Klaus to their home for the night—Ben could stop worrying.

“Hey Ben.” The sun was starting to poke over the horizon when Elizabeth’s voice drew him from his thoughts. “I know you’re here, even if I can’t see you. Thanks, for watching him when we couldn’t.” She carefully climbed out of the bed, stepping over Diego’s still sleeping form. “Wanna come watch the sunrise?”

“Yeah” he agreed, even if she couldn’t hear him, silently following her up to the roof of the gym.

“Yanno, I used to be jealous. Of the others. You all have amazing powers, can do incredible things and I’m just- ordinary. And not in the way Vanya is either. She’s at least a miracle baby, there was always a chance of her getting powers. Me? I’m ordinary, _normal_. I’m a perfectly normal child, the result of a perfectly normal pregnancy.” She took a deep, shaky breath, letting it out slowly. “I worry. About Klaus, about Diego and Allison and Luther and Vanya. About you and Five. Leaving that house was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and there are days when I regret it.” She pulled a familiar control out of her pocket, fiddling with the buttons. “Yeah, _he_ was a monster, and the house was a nightmare, but at least I always knew what was going on. I was always in control. I was the spy and the scout for your missions, I guided you through the comms. Then Five left, then _you-_ left and Vanya moved out and suddenly Diego was throwing a bag at me and telling me to pack. So I did. Half of me couldn’t wait to get out. Part of me never wanted to leave. But I did. I left, I got free. But even then I couldn’t leave it all behind. I took one controller, I told myself that would be enough, but I still used the one I had to get more. And now? Now we’re going back.” She paused, and when she spoke again, her voice cracked. “I’m scared Ben.”

“Oh, Elizabeth.”

“I’m scared I’m gonna regress when I set foot in that house again, turn back into the person I was. That angry little girl who had to be in control, know what everyone was doing at all times, because if she didn’t, if she couldn’t keep up, keep track of the Umbrella Academy, why was she even there? I’m scared that the one I’ve been able to limit myself to will become ten, or fifty, that I’ll end up in that little room again, behind that giant computer and that I’ll never leave. Vanya had it easy. She never felt like she had to work for the roof over her head, or the clothes on her back or the food in her belly. All she had to do was stay out of the way and take notes when asked.”

“Elizabeth, he messed us all up. From you to Luther.” Elizabeth stood up, shoving the control back in her pocket.

“We should head back inside before the others wake up. Wouldn’t want them to worry now, would we?” And the moment was gone, Elizabeth put her walls back up as she descended from the roof, pretending to the world that she was unflappable as always. But Ben knew the truth, his youngest sister was just as messed up as the rest of them, she just hid it better.

* * *

“So. We’re really going back, huh?” Klaus looked at the other even numbers as they piled into Diego’s car.

“This is going to be a disaster.” Was all Elizabeth said.

“The others?” Diego asked.

“Luther got back from the Moon yesterday, Allison arrived a few minutes ago and Vanya isn’t there yet.” Elizabeth rattled off, reporting the way she always had when Dad asked her for updates. “This is going to be a disaster.” She repeated.

“Tell her to calm down or she’s going to vanish into her surveillance room the moment we arrive.” Ben stated. “Which is bad Klaus.”

“Ben says you need to calm down.”

“Easy for you to say.” Elizabeth shot back. “ _I_ am trying to work past my addiction. _You_ are not.”

“I can turn this car around.” Diego interrupted.

“No. We need to go. Just to make sure he’s dead, if nothing else.”

“Oh no. He’s dead.”

“You broke into the coroner’s office, didn’t you?” Elizabeth groaned. “Of course you did. No wonder you were so late back.”

* * *

“Vanya?” Allison called, spotting her sister. The seventh Hargreeves sibling had clearly just walked through the door, her coat, gloves and scarf still on. “You’re actually here.”

“Hey Allison” Vanya replied softly

“Hey sis.” There was a moment of silence as they started at each other before Allison moved forwards, drawing her younger sister into a hug.

“What is she doing here?” A voice demanded, interrupting the moment. Diego. “You don’t belong here, not after what you did.” Allison turned in time to see her brother stride out of the living room and towards the stairs.

“You’re seriously gonna do this today?” She asked, turning to face him. He ignored her, continuing up the stairs. “Way to dress for the occasion by the way.”

“At least I’m wearing black” Diego called as he vanished from sight and Allison’s mind flashed back to the last time she’d seen her brother; the day he’d left, Elizabeth and Klaus on his heels.

_“What are you doing?” Diego hadn’t even looked up from the bag he’d been packing._

_“Leaving.” He’d stated, shoving past her. “Klaus?”_

_“Packed last night.” Their brother had replied, dropping a bag on the floor outside the slanted door to his room. Klaus had expanded his room into what had been Vanya’s the moment Vanya went off to boarding school, the day after Ben died._

_“We going then?” Elizabeth had been stood at the end of the hallway, a backpack they’d used on survival missions slung over her shoulder. The bag had almost been as big as she was._

_“You’re leaving.” Allison had stated flatly. “You’re walking away from the academy. On our birthday.”_

_“Not my birthday.” Elizabeth had shot back. “Mine’s tomorrow.”_

_“What will you do?” The three had looked at each other._

_“Eh.” Klaus had shrugged. “We’ll figure something out, probably split up at some point, you know what we’re like.”_

_“See ya Ally, give our love to Luther.” Elizabeth had called over her shoulder as the three vanished down the hall._

“You know what?” Vanya’s voice drew her out of the memory “I- maybe he’s right and I shouldn’t-”

“Forget about him.” Allison cut her off. “I’m glad you’re here.” It was bad enough that Five and Ben couldn’t be with them, she didn’t want Vanya missing too.

* * *

“So, Klaus is still Klaus, in case you were wondering.” Luther broke the silence that had fallen with Klaus’ departure.

“You know, after all these years, I find it strangely comforting.” There was a cat, sticking it’s head around the door. Elizabeth. She waved her hand at it and the cat vanished. At ;east Elizabeth wouldn’t be interrupting them, though Allison should have known the youngest Hargreeves would go back to trying to know everything that went on in the house the moment they all returned.

“Did you see Diego?”

“With his stupid outfit?”

“Oh, I know. Do you think he wears that thing in the bathroom?”

“Like, in the shower?”

“Yeah.”

“Yes. Absolutely.” She laughed. “You seen Elizabeth yet?”

“Not yet, she’s probably floating around somewhere though. Vanya?”

“I think she’s in the living room talking to Mom.” There was a pause.

“I, uh, I wasn’t sure you’d come.”

* * *

“Hey Vanya.”

“Elizabeth.” Her younger sister was glaring dagger at her, a knife—presumably one of Diego’s, or it had been at some point, Elizabeth had been ‘borrowing’ Diego’s knives and not giving them back until he gave her something she wanted in return for as long as Vanya could remember—twirling through her fingers. She always had liked having something to do with her hands. At least she wasn’t messing with a control and spying on them all.

“How does it feel, spilling all our closely kept secrets to the world?” The youngest Hargreeves spat and, for a moment, Vanya wished she hadn’t been quite so nice about Elizabeth in her book.

“You have no idea what it’s like to be me.”

“You’re right. I don’t.” Elizabeth agreed mildly, tossing the knife up and down. “But, you weren’t the only one in the house with powers, and, out of the two of us, you got off easy.”

“At least you got included.”

“Oh, yes, and I should feel _so_ grateful that Dad made me stand in front of Diego’s targets when he was practising. Is that what you wanted Vanya? To spend more nights in someone else’s room than you own so that when they eventually woke screaming at least they knew you were alive? You wanted to stand in front of Ben while he unleashed the Horror with nothing but a thin pane of glass between you until he learned how to direct it? You wanted to be rumoured so much that when you finally woke up you couldn’t remember the past _week_?” Elizabeth let out a mocking laugh. “You know, I used to be jealous of you. Even if you didn’t have powers, you were still a miracle child, there was always a chance you’d develop them.”

“You spied on us all. You reported everything we did back to him.”

“What else was I supposed to do Vanya? We were kids. We thought we were doing the right thing. Yeah, I spied on you all. But I’ve stopped. I only took one with me when I left-”

“You won’t stop Elizabeth. It’s like Klaus and his drugs. You can’t stop. You always have to be in control.” Elizabeth’s had flew to her pocket. “You’ve got one on you now, I know you do.”

* * *

There was a hand sticking out from the rubble, holding a bloody eye. Five ran over, prying the eye from the dead person’s grip. Standing up, Five could see their head. It was a man, a big man with blond hair. He looked almost familiar, like a grown up version of Luther. Stopping and looking around, a sinking feeling in his gut, he noticed more bodies a few feet away. A man and two women.

The man was on his front, head turned to the side and a knife that looked like one of Diego’s in his hand. The woman closest to him was in a similar position, also holding something in a death grip. A controller with a screen on the top, like the one Elizabeth had for the robot animals she used to keep surveillance on their missions.

The second woman was on her back, staring at the sky. Allison. But, no. it couldn’t be Allison. Because his siblings were fine. The bodies looking like Luther, Diego and Elizabeth were just a coincidence, that’s all. It had to be.

It was the third man that broke him though, on his front, coat sleeve pulled up and wrist bared showing an Umbrella tattoo. Klaus. It had to be Klaus. That hair and style of dress was too flamboyant to be anyone else. Meaning the other bodies didn’t just look like his siblings.

Luther. Diego. Allison. Klaus. Elizabeth. No Vanya or Ben though. Did they die earlier? Did they die somewhere else, will he stumble across another ruin and find two more bodies he recognises? Or did they somehow survive? It was clear the five he’d found had gone down fighting. Of course they had, they were the Umbrella Academy. They didn’t know _how_ to go down without a fight.

* * *

“Um, I guess we should get this started.” Luther stood up. “I figured we could have a sort of memorial service. In the courtyard at sundown. Say a few words, just at Dad’s favourite spot.”

“Dad had a favourite spot?”

“Yeah, you know. Under the oak tree. We used to sit out there all the time. None of you ever did that?”

“Oh yeah, I remember that.” Elizabeth stated, messing with a remote control for one her many, many robotic animals. Powerless she may be, Number Eight was smart, and good with computers. Dad had made her a whole host of robotic animals that, much like their mother, looked exactly like the real thing, the biggest difference being that Elizabeth had remote controls for her animals. She’d used them as spies and scouts to keep them coordinated on missions. Luther hated the things. They were fine on missions, but then she started using them around the house, spying on them all in their rooms, trying to learn everything she could like the control freak she was.

“You do?” He asked, mildly surprised.

“Yeah. I had a bird perched in the tree for three hours to see if he’d notice. He didn’t.” Of course.

“Will there be refreshments?” Klaus interrupted, “Tea? Scones? Cucumber sandwiches are always a winner."

“What? No. And put that out. You know Dad didn’t allow smoking in here.”

“Is that my skirt?” Allison demanded.

“What?” Klaus asked, putting his drink down “Oh, yeah, this. I found it in your room. It’s a little dated, I know, but it’s very breathy on the- bits.”

“TMI Klaus.” Elizabeth called, only half paying attention.

“Listen up.” Luther interrupted before the inevitable argument could break out. “There’s still some important things that we need to discuss, alright?”

“Like what?” Diego spoke for the first time since the meeting had been called.

“Like the way he died.”

“And here we go.”

“I don’t understand. I thought they said it was a heart attack.”

“Yeah, according to the coroner.”

“Well, wouldn’t they know?”

“Theoretically.”

“Theoretically?”

“I’m just saying, at the very least, something happened.” Luther explained. “the last time I talked to Dad, he sounded strange.” Klaus gargled something. Luther ignored him.

“Strange how?”

“He sounded on edge. Told me I should be careful who to trust.”

“Luther, he was a paranoid, bitter old man who was starting to lose what was left of his marbles.”

“No. He must have known something was going to happen.”

“Here we go again” Elizabeth muttered, finally putting her controller down. Luther ignored her too.

“Look, I know you don’t like to do it," He stated, turning to Klaus “But I need you to talk to Dad.”

“I can’t just call Dad in the afterlife and be like, ‘Dad, could you just… stop playing tennis with Hitler for a moment and take a quick call?’”

“Since when? That’s literally your thing.”

“I’m not in the right” He paused, searching for the words “frame of mind.”

“You’re high?”

“Yeah! Yeah!”

“Klaus-” Elizabeth started

“I mean, how are you not, listening to this nonsense?” Klaus continued, completely ignoring her.

“Well sober up, this is important.”

“How are you even high? You haven’t-” Elizabeth cut herself off with a groan. “You have a stash in your room.”

“Yep.”

“Then there’s the issue of the missing monocle.” Luther continued, deciding not to poke the sleeping bear that was Elizabeth trying to keep Klaus clean.

“Who gives a shit about a stupid monocle?” Diego asked, clearly getting tired of it all.

“Exactly.” Luther turned to face Diego. “It’s worthless. So, whoever took it, I think it was personal.” He looked around at his siblings. “Someone close to him, someone with a grudge.”

“Where are you going with this?” Klaus asked.

“Isn’t it obvious Klaus? He thinks one of us killed Dad.” Diego stated. Elizabeth, apparently taking that as her que, jumped to her feet.

“Oh, so one of us just snuck in here and did him in? Well, Allison’s been in LA for the past few years,” She stated, counting them off on her fingers “you’ve been on the moon, Klaus isn’t sober enough to make it look like a heart attack, Vanya would never do it, she doesn’t have the guts. Spill all our secrets? Yes. Kill Dad? No way in hell. Ben and Five are both gone. Meaning, oh, would you look at that D.” She smirked, turning to Diego “That leaves me and you. And we all know I’m _far_ too petty to only take the monocle.”

“Wait, you think Diego killed Dad?” Klaus muttered.

“How could you think that?” Vanya accused. Elizabeth smirked, grabbing her controller and flopping back down on the sofa. He glared at her.

“Great job Luther. Way to lead.” Diego walked off.

“That’s not what I’m saying.” Luther protested.

“You’re crazy, man. You’re crazy.” He stood up “Crazy.”

“I’ve not finished.” Luther snapped as they all started to leave.

“Sorry, I’m just gonna go murder Mom, be right back.”

“That’s not what I was saying. I didn’t-” He cut himself off with a sigh. “That went well.” He muttered to himself after they’d left.

“Not sure what else you were expecting, Big Boy.” Elizabeth stated, a smirk on her face. He’d forgotten that she was still there.

“Oh, _you_ can shut up.”

"Can I now?"

"You're such a control freak, you always have to know what everyone's doing at all times. Don't think I didn't notice your stupid cat sticking its head into Dad's office earlier.

* * *

Sir Reginald Hargreeves prowled the training grounds, watching his team of heroes in the making. Number One was the first one he reached, the boy effortlessly bench pressing over 500lbs.

“Mind your form, Number One.” Reginald commented absently. There was nothing too interesting about One’s powers, basic super strength and improved durability.

“Yes Sir.” One replied as he moved one.

Next was the water tank, Number Two floating inside, looking quite bored.

“How long has he been in there?” Reginald asked the technician stood by the tank.

“Going on six hours.” The Tech replied. Reginald look up at the tank again, Two giving him the finger.

“Tell him he can come out at ten.” Number Two, while having different powers from Number One, had similarly basic ones. An ability to curve the trajectory of anything he throws and the ability to hold his breath indefinitely.

Number Three was in the corner, reading a book.

“You’re supposed to be training Number Three.” He scolded.

“I Heard A Rumour I Didn’t Have To.” Three replied.

“Quite right.” He agreed, not entirely sure why. Much like One and Two, there wasn’t much training to be done with Three’s power. They all reached their ‘full potential’ rather quickly.

Number Four was the last one in the room, a blue shape flickering in and out of sight in front of him. Reginald frowned, that boy was always struggling with his powers.

“Clear you mind” He said quietly, leaning down to be level with the boy’s ear.

“But-” Four protested “The voices-”

“The voices are there to serve you. Not the other way around.” He reminded Four one again. “Your fear is a weapon and I want you to use it. Now. Clear your mind.” Four took a deep breath, his face going slack as the blue shape solidified into a Vietnam solider, it was usually a Vietnam solider, they answered the boy’s call more readily than any of the other ghosts for some reason.

Reginald patted Four on the shoulder as he kept walking. There was still so much more to Four’s powers that he had yet to tap into. He mused, noting the way the boy’s feet were hovering above the floor ever so slightly. So much more to them indeed. Reginald absently stepped over a cat as he left the main training room to head towards the more specialised ones.

Number Five was next, blinking around a room full of dummies too fast for the eye to follow, the things in front of the observation window constantly changing places.

“He’s prefect.” He stated, watching the serious boy pause in his movements.

“He’s reckless” The technician countered. “One miscalculation and he could get lost in time and space, his atoms torn apart.”

“That won’t happen.” Reginald stated, addressing the boy. “Will it, Number Five?”

“No Father.” The boy replied. Number Five was by far the best at controlling his powers.

In the next room was Number Six. Machine guns rattled from inside the room as tentacles whipped everywhere, throwing the armed soldiers around like tin figures.

“Excellent work, Number Six.” He called. The boy didn’t hear him.

“Ben.” A small voice behind him stated. Reginald turned to see Number Seven stood in the hallway. “His name’s Ben.”

“You’re not supposed to be down here, Number Seven.” He stated.

“We have names!” Number Seven called after him. Reginald ignored her, opening the door to the final room.

“Number Eight.” The girl didn’t even look up from her screens, hands flying across the controls. “Number Eight.” He called again. Still no response from her girl, her eyes darting over the screen and her ears coved by large headphones. Of course. He walked over, pulling them off. “ _Number Eight._ ” She blinked, looking up at him.

“Father.” She greeted, turning back to her controls. Number Eight, the powerless one but an asset nonetheless.

“Report.” Eight sighed, pushing away from her desk and turning to face him properly.

“Nothing’s changed since last week. The bribe at CPS is till working, nobody is coming to investigate. There are no traces of any of the rest of the miracle children anywhere in the city. The police are as incompetent as ever.”

“And your siblings?”

“One can life almost four fifty kilo without any trouble, Two’s managed to control the trajectory of three things thrown at him at once. Three’s as good with her power as ever. Four’s managed to summon three undead soldiers at once. Five’s faster than even. Six is getting better at pulling his tentacles back. Seven is doing well with her music.” Eight rattled off.

“And how many of your little pets have you lost this week?”

“Uh, none. A stray cat thought one of my mice would be a good snack but it just needs a few repairs.”

* * *

“Oh” Diego was the first one out into the courtyard as the lightning flashed.

“What is it?” Vanya asked, voice shaking slightly, as they all filed out.

“Don’t get to close.” Allison warned.

“Yeah, no shit.” Diego shot back.

“Looks like some sort of temporal anomaly” Luther told them, squinting at it. “Either that or a black hole. One of the two.”

“Big difference there.” Elizabeth and Diego said together.

“Out of the way!” Klaus shoved past them all, a fire extinguisher in his hands.

“What are you-” Luther trailed off as Klaus sprayed the extinguisher at the possible wormhole and, when that didn’t work, lobbed the thing in.

“What is that gonna do?” Allison demanded.

“I don’t know.” Klaus cried “You have a better idea?” The anomaly grew brighter, blue light flying off it. Luther grabbed both Elizabeth and Klaus, shoving them behind him.

“Everyone get behind me.” He ordered.

“Yeah.” Diego stepped up beside him. “Get behind us.”

“I vote for running.” Klaus yelled. “C’mon!”

“He’s right,” Elizabeth called, pulling on his shoulder “we should move. I have no idea what’s coming through that thing.”

The thing coming through turned out to be a boy. The light and wind faded as he hit the ground. The Hargreeves approached slowly as the boy climbed to his feet, an overly large suit hanging off his frame.

“Does anyone else see little Number Five, or is that just me?” Klaus asked.

“No. I see him too.” Elizabeth replied. Five looked down at himself.

“Shit.”

* * *

Burying them was the hardest thing Five had ever done.  
Luther had taken the longest to move, so big compared to the rest of them.  
Diego had had fifty seven knives on him. Five buried him with fifty three and kept four—one got lost and two broke, but the last one stayed with him all the way through the apocalypse and the commission, back to 2019—a piece of his family he could keep with him.  
He’d found Elizabeth’s robotic cat a few streets away, it’s body crushed by falling rubble. He had no idea where the rest of her animatronic menagerie was—he’d later found a small mouse and its controller intact in a box inside the rubble of what was Griddy’s Doughnuts and that too stayed with him through to 2019—but he’d buried the cat with her. It always had been her favourite.  
Allison was the easiest to get to, she had the least amount of rubble on her. The stupid A+L heart necklace had fallen off when he moved her, the chain broken, and he’d slipped it in his pocket.

Klaus had been worryingly light, all skin and bone with most of the weight coming from his clothes. There’d been a small zip-lock bag in his pocket full of small golden coins with 30 stamped on them. Rehab coins. Five had tucked them in his pocket with the eye, the knives and the locket that were later joined by the mouse and controller.

He’d dug them graves, in the courtyard of the mansion, where, according to Vanya’s book, Ben’s statue had once stood. One, Two, Three, Four, Six, Eight, all in a circle. They’d have liked being together, he’d decided. He’d made markers for Ben and Vanya, even if he didn’t have bodies to bury. (He never told anyone, not even Delores, but the moment he buried his siblings he knew that he’d end up in the ground beside them, in the space he left between Klaus and Ben’s marker. He’d dug a hole. There wouldn’t be anyone left to bury him, but at least they’d be together.)

Reading Vanya’s book, finding out Ben was dead before the apocalypse, had been- upsetting. Maybe, if he’d stayed, Ben would have lived. But, at least it was one body he never had to see.

* * *

“What’s the date?” Five demanded, putting a chopping board down on the kitchen table. “The _exact_ date.”

“March 24th, 2019.” Elizabeth replied, automatically.

“Good.” Five stated, pulling out bread, marshmallows and peanut butter.

“So, are we gonna talk about what just happened?” Luther asked. There was silence, Five ignoring him in favour of putting his sandwich together. “It’s been seventeen years.” Luther stood up, towing over Five.

“It’s been a lot longer than that.” Five replied, craning his neck to look Luther in the eye. He jumped past Luther to get at the cabinet behind him.

“I haven’t missed that.” Luther muttered. Elizabeth laughed.

“Where’d you go?” Diego asked.

“The future. It’s shit, by the way.”

“Called it.” Klaus gloated. Diego groaned, handing him five bucks.

“I should’ve listened to the old man.” Five continued, ignoring his siblings. “Jumping through space is one thing, jumping through time is a toss of the dice.”

“Wait” Vanya interrupted. “How did you get back?”

“In the end I had to project my consciousness forward into a suspended quantum state version of myself that exists in every possible instance of time.”

“That makes no sense” Diego replied, looking confused.

“I understood bits.” Elizabeth always had been the sibling most likely to understand his calculations, probably came from all that time with computers.

“Well, it would if you were smarter.” Diego stood up, only to be stopped by Luther’s arm across his chest. “Granted, it did take me a little time to work out all the nuts and bolts of it...”

“How long were you there?” Luther asked, still holding Diego back.

“Forty five years, give or take.” They all sat back down.

“So you’re fifty eight?”

“No, my consciousness is fifty eight. Apparently my body’s now thirteen again.”

“How does that even work?” Vanya asked, clearly still trying to wrap her head around it all.

“Delores kept saying my equations were off” He shrugged, taking a bite of his sandwich “Bet she’s laughing now.”

“Delores?” Five ignored the question, grabbing the paper that was on the table.

“Guess I missed the funeral.”

“How’d you know about that?”

“”What part of ‘the future’ do you not understand?” Five dropped the paper on the table “heart failure, huh?”

“Yeah” Diego replied, at the same time Luther snapped “No.”

“Luther thinks’ one of us, most likely Diego, killed him because the monocle’s missing.” Elizabeth explained.

“Nice to see nothing’s changed.” Luther and Diego had always been at odds with one another and Elizabeth had always had to prove that she knew everything.

“That’s it?” Allison demanded as he made to leave the room. “That’s all you have to say?”

“What else is there to say? Circle of life.”

* * *

“You know, if you wanted to get changed, now’s the time.” Allison stated softly as she joined him in their father’s office.

“You do realise that I can’t just walk into a shop and buy suits this big.” He paused looking at her and noticing the look on her face “Are you mad?”

“Am I mad? Do you even know how messed up that was back there? You can’t just drop a bomb like, hey, I think one of you might have killed Dad, that you think _Diego_ specifically might have killed Dad, and just leave it like that. I know you two hated each other, but he’s not the sort of person to do that.”

“I didn’t-” He tried to protest but Allison cut him off.

“That’s exactly what you did.”

“I’m just saying, look how we turned out.” He stated, ticking them off on his fingers. “Vanya, insecure wreck. Diego, ‘roid rage poster boy. Klaus, barely keeping it together, Elizabeth, control freak who has to know everything about everyone.”

“What about Allison? ‘Tabloid disaster?’ ‘World’s worst mom?’”

“I didn’t say that--”

“You gonna blame Dad for the way I turned out? Or what about Number Five? He just showed up, maybe you wanna go accuse him of murder!”

“Yeah, and he just happens to show up today? That doesn’t seem like a hell of a coincidence to you?” Allison shook her head, disgusted.

“Dad’s not the victim here, Luther. We were. We all got screwed over. That doesn’t mean we have a motive.” She leaned in closer “Why are you doing this? What, like all of a sudden we’re going to break out the spandex again? Maybe go beat the shit out of Dr. Terminal?”

“You think that’s what this is about? The Academy?” He scowled, brushing past her and aiming a kick at the cat in the doorway. Fucking Elizabeth couldn’t keep her nose out of other people’s business.

“Then what? Why do you even care?” Allison called, chasing after him.

“Because he sent me up there!” Luther yelled, punching a hole in the wall “He said, Watch for threats, Number One. He said, No one else can do this but you. And I trusted him! Four years, by myself, staring at a bunch of goddamn rocks. And every single morning I had to tell myself, ‘Don’t worry, Dad must have had his reasons. One day this will all make sense.’ And it was for nothing.” She reached out to touch him but he slapped her hand away. “You wanna talk motive, how’s that for getting ‘screwed over’?”

* * *

“Nice to know that Dad didn’t forget me.” Five said, turning away from the painting of him above the mantle as Vanya approached. “Read you book by the way, found it in a library that was still standing. I thought it was pretty good, all things considered. And definitely ballsy, giving up the family secrets like that. Sure that went over well.”

“They hate me.” Yes, he’d seen the glares. Elizabeth seemed especially angry, which was strange, seeing as the book was fairly nice about her, all things considered.

“There are worse things that can happen.” He told her.

“You mean like what happened to Ben?”

“Was it bad?” Vanya nodded. Five looked away, there was nothing left to say really.

* * *

Rain poured down as they gathered outside for the funeral.

“Did something happen?” Their mother asked.

“Dad died.” Allison reminded her, “Remember?”

“Oh, yes. Of course.”

“Is Mom okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. She’s fine.” Diego was quick to reassure them all. Momma’s boy. “She just needs to rest, you know. Recharge.”

“Whenever you’re ready, dear boy.” Pogo stated, looking at Luther and the urn in his hands as he limped up. Luther slowly stretched his arm out and tipped the urn up, the ashes falling to the ground. They all stared for a moment in silence.

“Probably would have been better with some wind.” Luther admitted.

“Does anyone wish to speak?” Pogo asked, looking around the group. Elizabeth suddenly found the floor under their feet fascinating. “Very well.” He paused for a moment, probably to give them the chance to talk when clearly nobody wanted to. “In all regards, Reginald Hargreeves made me what I am today. For that alone, I shall forever be in his debt. He was my friend, and my master, and I shall miss him very much. He leaves behind a complicated legacy-

“He was a monster.” Diego gut Pogo off and Klaus let out a breathy laugh. “He was bad as a person and worse as a father, and the world’s better off without him.”

“Diego.” Allison started

“My _name_ is Number Two.” He cut her off “You know why? Because our father couldn’t be bothered to give us actual names. He had Mom do it.”

“I dunno, are you counting the code names?” Elizabeth asked. “Can’t say I liked “The Control’ very much.”

“Shut up" Diego snapped. "Look, you wanna pay your respects? Go ahead. But at least be honest about the kind of man he was, about the legacy he leaves behind.”

“We’re his legacy.” Luther stated softly.

“Well, I hope he's proud.” Diego snapped. “Look at us.”

“Diego.” Allison scolded.

“No. He’s got a point.” Elizabeth stated. “Drug addict.” She said, point it Klaus. “Fame Whore.” Allison. “Traitor” Vanya “Hyped up Hero complex” Diego. “Whatever the hell you are” Five “Ben's dead, I’m a Control Freak and you’re the mighty Spaceboy.” She jabbed him in the chest. “Daddy’s perfect little solider. But.” She placed a hand on her chest, “You’re even less human than the other’s now, aren’t you?” She was poking at a sore spot, she knew she was, but she was angry, so fucking furious. It was the house, her siblings, Five's 'miraculous' return, Ben’s stupid fucking statue.

“Elizabeth.” Luther growled.

“What? Don’t like the truth?” She taunted. You should never poke a bear with a stick, certainly not one that’s already annoyed at you but, quite frankly, she’d stopped caring years ago.

“Number Eight!” Luther snapped. And something in her snapped too.

“ _This_.” She screamed back “is what he made me. What he made _all_ of us.” Tears were brimming in her eyes, both her and Luther shaking with rage. She took a deep breath. She’d fucked up. “I need to go.” She muttered, turned and heading back towards the house.

“What, so you’re just gonna turn tail and run like you did last time?” Luther goaded, just like she’d taunted him. Her hands clenched into fists, wanting to turn around and punch him in the face, start a fight she _knew_ she’d lose.

“Hey, we got out.” Elizabeth could hear Diego getting in Luther’s face as she left. “ _You,_ on the other hand, sat on the moon like a good little dog. He had to send you two hundred and forty thousand miles away because he couldn’t stand the sight of you.” The door slammed shut behind her. It sounded like the end of something.

* * *

Sometimes, when the world got too quiet, he could have sworn he heard Vanya’s violin music on the wind, or Elizabeth’s laugh. “I heard a rumour” echoed through empty buildings inside his head. Every room had Ben reading a book if he looked out the corner of his eye, or Diego and Luther arguing again and sometimes, if he said a particularly scathing thought out loud, he could head Klaus making a stupid comment. They followed him, seven ghosts in his footsteps. One, Two, Three, Four, Six, Seven, Eight all following Five.


	3. Five for a secret Never to be told

"Well, that went about as well as expected" Ben stated as their siblings left the courtyard.

"It's just like old times" Klaus smirked, crouching down in front of the remains of the man that ruined his childhood. "I bet you're loving this, the team at it's best" he put his cigarette out in the ashes.

* * *

Elizabeth flopped back onto her bed, staring at the ceiling. "Way to go, Elisa. You fucked up." she muttered throwing an arm over her eyes. "Why did I open my stupid mouth?"

"Miss Elizabeth?" A voice came from the doorway. Pogo. She groaned

"We should never have come" She stated, talking half to herself and half to Pogo.

"He was your father too Miss Elizabeth. You have every right to have come" The old chimp stated, Elizabeth let her arm flop back onto the bed, staring at the old poster Klaus and Ben had helped her stick on the ceiling. She'd had to balance on Klaus' shoulders in order to reach it. Ben was there to catch her when she inevitably fell off. He'd caught her three times and the poster still ended up wonky.

"Some father." She scoffed, she should probably fix that, she was tall enough to sort it out if she stood on a chair now.

"He loved you, Miss Elizabeth, he loved you all very much, in his own way" Pogo said softly, and Elizabeth wondered just how much he actually believed the words coming out of his mouth.

"Yeah, well, he had a shit way of showing it." Pogo sighed, and Elizabeth could already see his disappointed face, even if she wasn't looking at him.

"Miss Elizabeth-" he started but she cut him off, quickly growing tired of the bullshit he was spouting.

"We were kids Pogo. We were just kids." And, oh gods, they'd all been so young. She used to daydream about having a different life, one where their father never adopted her, or sent her back when he found out she didn't have any powers. She could have had a normal life.

"He always said you were meant to save the world" That made her sit up. Meant to save the world? Maybe the others, but not her. Not little Number Eight. Not fragile, powerless Elizabeth. Never her.

"How?" She demanded "How are we supposed to do that? We're a fucked up, dysfunctional mess of a family, most of us haven't spoken to each other in over a decade, we can't go more than five minutes in a room together without insulting each other and, to cap it all off, even though Five came back, Ben's still dead. How are we supposed to save the world Pogo? Go on. Tell me." They were more likely to tear the world apart, the Hargreeves family, after all, were brilliant at breaking things. they _excelled_ at destroying things. That's all Sir Reginald ever did after all. He broke all his little child soldiers, one by one, and never put them back together again.

"I don't know Miss Elizabeth, but it is what your father believed, what he was preparing you all for." So he actually had a reason for torturing a bunch of kids. Well, that was great to know. Didn't bring her childhood back.

"Maybe we _don't_ save the world Pogo," Elizabeth snapped "ever thought about that? Maybe we're the ones who destroy it. Hell, maybe Luther punches the wrong person. Maybe Diego throws a knife at the wrong time and hits something he really, really shouldn't have. Maybe Allison words a rumour wrong and I don't know, gets the president to declare nuclear war on Russia. Maybe Klaus brings the dead back to life. Maybe Five breaks time. Maybe Ben comes back from the dead and unleashes the horror on the most powerful people in the world. Maybe Vanya has apocalyptic powers and goes nuclear. Maybe I, with my stupid big mouth and control-freak tendencies, overhear the wrong thing, try and blackmail someone with the wrong bit of info and send everything spiralling. Maybe whatever event we're supposed to stop to save the world happens because Daddy Dearest fucked us all up as kids." She was practically screaming by the end of it, her temper getting the better of her.

"Miss Elizabeth, I know you're upset but you or your siblings causing an apocalypse sounds very far fetched." Pogo said, the liar. If _anyone_ was going to cause the apocalypse, it would be one of the forty three miracle babies. And, of those babies, Elizabeth would be willing to bet her life that the seven she grew up with were the most fucked up of the lot.

"Hey Pogo" Klaus stuck his head in the room, interrupting the tense conversation before her temper could fully snap. "Lizzy. Your talk sounds real interesting, but Diego's about to go so if you want a ride we need to move."

"Thanks, Klaus, I'll be down in a minute." She waved a hand at him, grabbing her bag off the floor

"Just remember, Miss Elizabeth," The old chimp said softly as she brushed past him "this place is your home. You are always welcome here." She paused, her back to him as she watched Klaus vanish down the hall.

"I may always be welcome Pogo, but this place was never home." She replied, following Klaus. Pogo watched her go, she could feel his eyes on her back until she rounded the corner.

* * *

"Hey! Diego!" Klaus practically sprinted to the car. Diego sighed.

"Hey D." Elizabeth smirked, dropping into the passenger's seat. "Tryna leave without us?"

"Yes." he said, even though all three of them—four if Ben was there, which he probably was—knew he wouldn't.

"Boo." Klaus called, climbing in the back. "You know, every time I close my eyes, I see a diarrhetic hippo about to shit on my face." He stated, his hands on Diego's shoulders. "It's terrifying."

"Terrific" He stated through gritted teeth. Why did Klaus feel the need to share things like that with the world?

"Klaus! Why would you say that?" Elizabeth groaned. Klaus laughed.

"Lean back." Diego ordered as he started the car, he'd long since accepted the fact that the pair of idiots in his car wouldn't leave him alone.

* * *

Elizabeth waved as Diego drove off. It had been a while since he'd had a brooding moment like the one by the river, but that was to be expected, it had been a while since they'd seen any of their other siblings.

"What's betting Patch arrests him for interfering with her case again?" She asked, turning away as the car vanished from sight.

"That's a fool's bet Lizzy." Klaus replied, leaning back against her front door. "Hey, you got any waffles?"

"I have a whole drawer in the freezer full of them, Klaus. You _know_ this." Elizabeth replied, pulling her keys out her pocket. Klause nearly always wanted waffles. "I'll swing by the station tomorrow, pick him up when Patch lets him out." Because it _would_ be morning before Patch let him out. They'd been playing their game of interfering and arresting since Patch made detective, if not longer. She _always_ let him cool his heels overnight.

* * *

"You think I'm crazy." Five stated. Vanya was staring at him, clearly not believing a word he'd just said.

"No" She protested, "that's- It's just- it's a _lot_ to take in." She didn't believe him.

"Exactly what _don't_ you understand?" He asked.

"Why didn't you just time travel back?" He scoffed. How nieve.

"Gee. Wish I'd thought of that. Time travel is a crapshoot. I went into the ice and never acorned." he explained. "You think I didn't try everything to get back to my family?"

"If you grew old there, in the apocalypse, how come you still look like a kid?" Vanya asked, clearly trying to change the conversation.

"I told you already." Five stated, "I must have got the equations wrong." maybe he'd made a mistake by coming to Vanya. But the book, the book painted her as the only sensible one, the only smart one, aside from-

"I mean," She interrupted his train of thought, "Dad used to always say that time travel could mess up your mind. Well, maybe that's what's happening?" Five scoffed.

"This was a mistake. You're too young." He stated, brushing past her "too nieve to understand."

"Wait, Five, no, Five wait-" He stopped in front of the door, giving her a moment to finish. "I haven't seen you in a long time, and I don't want to lose you again. that's all." She paused. "You know what, it's getting late, and I have lessons early and I need to sleep and I'm sure you do too." She pulled a blanket off the sofa, passing it to him. "Here, we'll talk again in the morning, I promise." She smiled softly at him. "Night."

"Night." Five returned, watching as she vanished into her room. He had no intention of staying the night and there was still one person who might believe him that wouldn't wreak everything up by looking at it.

* * *

"Elizabeth." Elizabeth jumped as a voice came from the corner of her room. The paused, she recognized that voice.

"Jesus fucking Christ Five. How did you get into my room?" The teen was sat on the chair in the corner, watching her.

"I jumped through the window. At least you have locks on yours." At least he didn't break anything. The windows were a bitch to have to replace.

"Course I do. I'm not stupid." She paused. "What are you doing? Why are you here I mean? Not that it isn't great to see you, but you rarely do things without a reason." Five always had been the practical sort.

"I have decided, since you're my only other sensible sibling and Vanya doesn't believe me, you have to help me stop the apocalypse." And apparently he was dismissing One through Four of their siblings out of hand. Elizabeth was willing to bet that if Vanya believed him, or even if Ben was still alive, that she wouldn't be hearing this.

"Okay, and what makes you think _I'll_ believe you?" She asked. Five had rarely come to her with problems when they were children.

"You believe a lot of things our siblings tell you. Like Diego telling you plants had feelings and screamed when they got cooked." Of course that was the incident he remembered. At least she was Klaus, who licked a battery because their brother—who had a history of telling people things that weren't true to see how they'd react—told them licking it would give them pubes? Seriously Klaus. Grow a brain.

"We were _six_." She shook her head "wait, no, that doesn't matter. Why did you come to me?" She rephrased her question, seeing as Five had just dodged around it.

"You're sensible. You're ordinary. You'll listen."

"Not sure I agree with the first two points," Elizabeth would never go as far as to call herself sensible, more common sense than most o her siblings? Yes. Sensible? Absolutely not. And Daddy Dearest certainly hadn't given them an ordinary upbringing. "but sure. I'll listen. You can't keep this in the dark though, Five. If you're telling the truth and there's gonna be an apocalypse, we need the others too." Five was _not_ powerful enough by himself to stop the apocalypse and, as much as the others drove her nuts, they were a good team when they worked together.

"They're all idiots." Well, yes. Of course they were. Being an emotionally stunted idiot was practically a requirement for being a Hargreeves.

"Which is why they'll need our help." Five stared at her.

"Do you know what I found when I jumped forwards, Elizabeth?" He asked, leaning forwards.

"No. I don't. I wasn't there." He wasn't impressed with her answer. Well, he really shouldn't have come to her if he couldn't handle any sort of sarcasm at all.

"Nothing. I found nothing. As far as I could tell, I was the last person alive. I never found out what killed the human race." Oh shit. That was bad, that was really bad.

"Good chance it was one of us." Unless a nuclear war broke out or a bioweapon got into the atmosphere, the only ones with the ability to destroy the world were the miracle kids.

"Elizabeth." He was scowling at her, it was cute on his thirteen-year-old face.

"Fine, continue."

"As I said, I never found out what killed you all, but I did find out the date it happens. We have eight days until the end of the world." Fuck.

"Okay. How do we stop it?" Eight days. Eight Hargreeves kids. One for each of them. How ironic.

"You're taking this a lot better than Vanya did." Five stated. Vanya probably thought he was crazy, she'd never been involved in the academy after all. Elizabeth had.

"Like you said, I tend to believe stuff when it comes from you guys." She paused "Well, maybe not Diego, but still. Besides, you're not one to make things up. If you think the world ends in eight days, then it probably does. So again, how do we stop it?"

"That's just it. I have no idea." Elizabeth paused, grabbing a notebook off the table.

"Alright then, what _do_ we know?"


	4. Four. That's how many years it took me to get through the lesson that I had to do it all on my own.

She was lying on a cold, sterile table, a harsh white light above her. "Mom" She called. "I'm scared."

"There's nothing to be afraid of, Darling. Your father knows what he's doing. You're going to fall asleep and when you wake up you won't need glasses anymore. You'll be able to see clearly."

Elizabeth woke with a gasp, shaking her head to dislodge the memory. It'd been years since she'd dreamt of that particular moment. Going back to the house had dredged up hundreds of memories she'd tried to forget, but she'd been hoping that one would stay buried.

Hauling herself out of bed, she checked on her brothers on her way to the kitchen. Klaus was still passed out in the guest room, on the spare bed that was basically his at this point. The other bed was empty. Five had to already be up and about then.

"Morning Ben." She called as she left the room, waving slightly to the shimmery patch of air near the chair in the corner. "Morning Five."

"Ah, you're up." Speak of the devil. Five was sat on her sofa, a mug full of coffee—the biggest one she had in her cupboard—in his hands.

"Did you sleep at all last night?" Elizabeth asked, glancing at the paper spread out over the table.

"Your concern is appreciated, but unneeded. I am fine."

"I'll take that as a 'no' then." Elizabeth rolled her eyes slightly. Even after decades, some things about Five just didn't change. "You eaten yet?"

"We're wasting time."

"Making sure you get a good meal at the start of the day is not 'wasting time' Five. There might not have been much to eat in the apocalypse, but there's plenty of food here. Now, what do you want for breakfast before Klaus wakes up and decides that we're all eating waffles. Again."

* * *

_Klaus, Klaus_

"Wakey wakey" a voice cut through the screams of the dead. Klaus blearily opened his eyes to see Elizabeth stood over him, Five and Ben just behind her.

"What's going on?" He asked, normally Elizabeth had gone to work by the time he woke up when he crashed at hers.

"World ends in eight days, Diego needs picking up from the station and Five has a fake eye he needs to find the owner of."

"Okay." He muttered, rolling over with every intention of going back to sleep before the words actually sunk in. "Wait, _what_?"

"World ends in eight days, Diego needs picking up and Five needs to find the owner of a fake eye." Elizabeth repeated, ticking them off on her fingers as she spoke: "Keep up." 

"Yeah. That's what I thought you said." Sitting up as Elizabeth threw a top at his head "The world really ends in eight days?" Elizabeth shrugged, dropping down on the end of the bed.

"That's what Five said."

"He did." Ben agreed. "They had a long conversation about it last night."

"And you believe him?" Klaus asked, incredulously "Lizzy, you've really got to stop believing our brothers when they tell you stupid stuff." It was a bit hypocritical, but Elizabeth was far worse than him when it came to believing stuff.

"Rich coming from you Mr I'm-gonna-stick-a-lightbulb-in-my-mouth-because-Diego-said-it-would-make-my-voice-drop." Ouch, did she have to bring _that_ one up?"

"Says the woman who listened when he said that babies were bought from a baby factory." He shot back.

"You didn't know any better either!" Ha! She didn't have a response to that!

"You two will be here all day if you keep listing the stupid things Diego told you." Ben stated "You were both stupid and gullible." Klaus hissed at him. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow and glanced at Ben, it was almost scary how good she was at spotting him.

"Let me guess, Ben's calling us both stupid?"

"He says we'll be here all day if we keep listing all the stupid stuff D's told us."

"Ben's the only one in your little 'even numbers club' with a brain cell." Five stated from the doorway. "Come on."

* * *

"Yeah. I know you too Diego." Patch stated.

"Elizabeth!" Diego groaned at Beaman's call. Patch smirked.

"You called my sister?" He demanded.

"Elizabeth is the only person I trust to keep you out of my investigations," Patch replied as Elizabeth reached the desk.

"Thanks Beaman. You ready to go D? Cuz we got places to be and things to do."

"We do?" That was news to him, normally she just dragged him and occasionally Klaus out for food.

"Yep. Our baby bro decided to drop a bomb last night, so we're running out of time to get stuff done." She was edging around the question. But Five had said something troubling, that was clear enough.

"Let's go then.

* * *

"Okay. To catch you up to speed, we have eight days before the end of the world." Elizabeth stated as they climbed in the car. Five was in the passenger's seat and refused to move so Diego got in the back with Klaus.

"Seven." Five corrected

"Right. We have _seven_ days before the end of the world."

"What the fuck." Diego glared at the two in the front "And you're only _now_ telling me?"

"Seven days Diego. I only found out last night." She started the car

"Where are we going?" Klaus asked

"Meritech."

"Why?"

"Because there's a good chance we can find whoever causes the apocalypse by going there."

* * *

"Why are we stopping here?" Five asked as they pulled up outside Griddy's

"I need to talk to Agnes about my shifts for the week. Also, Klaus wants waffles."

"Get some doughnuts too." Diego stated, clearly still annoyed that Five made him sit in the back.

"No. You're a criminal, criminals don't get doughnuts, Diego."

"You're seriously doing this again?"

"Stop getting arrested and I'll stop doing it."

* * *

"Hey Agnes" Agnes smiled at the voice. Elizabeth. The younger woman had come to her at seventeen, asking if she had any job openings. She had, and Elizabeth had worked there ever since, crashing in the back room until she earned enough to buy her own apartment.

"Elizabeth!" The old woman smiled "It's good to see you, how are you and your brothers holding up?" Elizabeth often mentioned two brothers—Diego and Klaus—even if she'd only ever met one of them. Losing their father much have been a shock to all three of them.

"We're alright, it's just- taking a while to sink in. He's really gone."

"Well, you take all the time you need. Business is probably going to be slow for a few days after last night."

"True. Speaking of last night, what happened?"

"This kid and his dad came in, ate and left, I nipped into the backroom to grab some change and these guys came in and started shooting up the place."

"Wow. That's- I don't know what to say, you must have been terrified." She pushed her sleeves up as she grabbed a to-go cup. Agnes noted the umbrella tattoo on her wrist. She'd seen it before,Elizabeth had had it at seventeen even if she never said where it came from.

"That tattoo." Agnes stated. "The first detective I spoke to last night had it."

"Diego." Ah, the second of Elizabeth's brothers then. She'd mentioned something about him and the police academy years ago.

"And the kid. The kid has it too." Elizabeth froze, before smiling slightly.

"He did, did he? Wonder how he got it then. I mean, who lets a kid get a tattoo?" she asked, throwing some waffles, doughnuts and bagels into a box.

* * *

"Waffles for Klaus." Elizabeth stated, tossing the box into the back seat as she climbed in the car, "Black coffee for Five, doughnuts for Ben and plain bagels for Diego."

"Seriously?" Diego demanded.

"I told you. Criminals don't get doughnuts, Diego." She smirked at him "Speaking of criminals, I heard something interesting from Agnes while I was in there." She turned to face Five "Apparently the kid that visited last night right before the shootout had a tattoo, just like ours."

"Oh?" The little shit asked, trying and failing to look innocent. No Hargreeves was capable of looking innocent.

"Got something you want to say Five?" She asked as they headed back towards the academy.

"It's a long story."

"Better start talking then."

* * *

"Master Diego, Master Klaus, Master Five, Miss Elizabeth." Pogo greeted as they entered the academy.

"Hey Pogo, what's up?"

"I have a query for you. In particular, Master Klaus."

"Oh?" Five jumped away as Elizabeth and Diego glanced at each other before taking a step back, basically leaving him alone in front of Pogo. Assholes.

"Items from your father's office have gone missing, in particular, an ornate box with pearl inlay"

"Really?" Ben asked. Klaus ignored him

"Really? You don't say?"

"Any idea where it went?" Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Elizabeth pinching the bridge of her nose.

"No. no no, no idea." He replied, trying not to think about the day before. "Sorry."

"Liar." Ben stated.

"Drop dead." Klaus hissed as Elizabeth stepped forwards.

"Low blow."

"What makes you think it was Klaus?" There was a reason she was his favourite sister.

"Really Miss Elizabeth, who else would it be?"

"I dunno, a thief who heard that Daddy Dearest was dead and came to help themself to the stuff here before we got our inheritance?"

"Either way, the contents of that box are- priceless. Were they to find their way back to the office, whoever took it would be absolved of any blame or consequence."

"Are- are you trying to blackmail us Pogo?" Elizabeth asked. "Because, I'm pretty sure blackmail's _my_ thing."

"Miss Elizabeth." Pogo warned.

"We'll keep an eye out for the box Pogo." Diego interrupted. Smart man, Lizzy looked like she was about to start a fight. Yeah, she probably knew full well that Klaus stole the box, but she also got pissy when she thought people—or chimps—were stealing her thing.

* * *

"Five?" Vanya called as she climbed the stairs to his room. That part of the house felt empty, desolate- even more so than the rest of it. Before Five had left, she'd come up here often, studying in Five's room, or talking about books in Ben's. "Are you here?"

There were three doors on the landing, she had no idea how Elizabeth could stand to stay up here, not after losing both Five and Ben. Five and Ben's were at one end, opposite each other. Elizabeth's was further down, on the same side as Five's. Ben's door was shut, had been since he died. Elizabeth's was also shut, but there was a stack of books on the floor outside it. Five's door was open. "Five?" She called again, relaxing when she spotted him staring out the window. "Oh, thank god. I was worried sick about you."

"Sorry I left without saying goodbye." he apologised, turning away from the window.

"No, no, I’m sorry,” said Vanya. “I was dismissive, and I didn’t know how to process what you were saying, and honestly, I still can’t really process.”

“Maybe you were right to be dismissive. Maybe…it wasn’t real after all. Well, it felt real.”

"Five?" Elizabeth was stood in the doorway, a coffee cup in her hands. "Oh, hey Vanya."

"Elizabeth."

"You ready to go Five?"

"Go? Go where?"

"Oh, I'm taking him shopping so he's got something other than the old uniform to wear. Right, Five?"

"I still think it's a waste of time, the uniform fits me perfectly well."

"You can come if you want."

"Oh, no, I've got rehearsals later- I couldn't"

"Okay, well, I'll see you around. Come on Five. We don't have all day."

* * *

"Right. Klaus, Diego decide between you who's being Five's fake dad. Both of you can do it if you really want to, but I'm not."

"Why does Five need a fake dad?"

"You really think they're gonna answer his questions? He looks like a thirteen year old"

"Are you suggesting that we pretend we're into incest like Allison and Luther?" Klaus asked.

"If that's what it takes, yes."

* * *

"Any information about the prosthetics we build is strictly confidential." The man in front of them explained. "Without the client's consent, I simply cannot help you."

"We can't _get_ consent if you don't give us a name." Five hissed. Ben shook his head. This was going nowhere. Diego looked like he wanted to pull out a knife and threaten the guy, if just to get them out of there—thank god Elizabeth made him leave all his knives in the house—and Klaus- Klaus was clearly contemplating something. That was not a good look. That look meant Klaus was about to do something stupid.

"Well, that's not my problem." The doctor replied and Klaus was eyeing the snowglobe on the desk with the intensity of a man about to do something _very_ stupid. "Sorry. Now there's really nothing more I can do so-"

"And what about _my_ consent?" And there was the stupid idea.

"Excuse me?"

Who gave _you_ permission to lay your hands on my son"

"What?" The others in the office asked. The doctor was staring at Klaus as Five and Diego looked at each other, equally confused.

"You heard me."

"I didn't touch your son."

"Oh, really? Well, then how did he get that swollen lip then?"

"He doesn't have a swollen-" Ben groaned as Klaus slapped Five across the face.

"I want it. Name, please. Now."

"You're crazy."

"You got no idea. Now, name, or do we have to say you gave my husband a black eye?"

"Oh no- don't you dare-" Diego protested "Ow, fuck." He glared at Klaus through his good eye.

"You- you're insane."

"It runs in the family." Klaus picked up the snowglobe, "Peace on earth, that's so sweet." Klaus said before smashing it against his head. "God that hurt."

"I'm calling securi-" The guy started picking up the telephone only for Klaus to yank it out of his hands "What are you doing!"

"There's been an assault in Mr Big's office, and we need security now. Schnell!" Klaus threw the phone down. "Now, here's what's gonna happen Grant-"

"It's... Lance"

"In about sixty seconds, two security guards are gonna burst through that door, they're gonna see a whole lot of blood and they're gonna wonder 'what the hell happened' and we're gonna tell them that _you_ beat the _shit_ out of us." Diego let out a startled laugh as Five looked at Klaus proudly. "You're gonna do great in prison, Grant. Trust me. I've been there. Little piece of chicken like you, you're gonna get passed around like a- you're just- you're gonna do great. That's all I'm saying."

"Jesus, you are a real sick bastard."

"Thank you."

"You gonna tell us what we want to know now?" Diego asked.

* * *

"Well, this is not good." Five muttered as they strode out the building.

"I thought I was pretty good though, right?" Klaus gloated "What about _my_ consent, bitch?"

"Did you have to punch me in the eye?" Diego snapped.

"Oh, yes. Absolutely."

"Klaus. It doesn't matter."

"Take it you didn't get your answers then." Elizabeth asked, leaning up against her car. "Jesus. What happened to you guys?"

"Klaus slapped Five, punched me in the eye, and then smashed a snow globe against his head to get our guy to talk. I _told_ you you should have let me keep my knives."

"Oh yes, because they would have let you just walk in covered in knives." She sighed. "Get in the car, I think it's time we let the others know what's going on."

"Do we have to tell Luther? He's an ass."

"Yes, Diego. If we're gonna save the world, we need all of us. _Including_ Luther."

"What about Vanya?" Klaus asked "Are we telling Vanya?"

"I- maybe? If she asks I guess. I'm not sure what Vanya can do to help."

* * *

"Allison! Luther!"

"Elizabeth, what are you-"

"Family meeting."

"Elizabeth-"

"The world ends in seven days so get your asses downstairs."

"What?"

"Yeah, she wasn't much better explaining it to me earlier."

* * *

"Five?" Luther asked as their missing brother strode in, a sports bag over his shoulder. Instantly they were all on their feet.

"What the hell happened to you?"

"Where've you been?"

"Are you okay? Can we help?"

"There's nothing you can do." Five spat, brushing off their concern "There's nothing _any_ of you can do."

"Five. Please, we're trying to help-" Allison tried

"And I don't need it."

"Don't need it? Five, we've spent all day driving around-"

"And you've done everything I needed you for." Five cut Elizabeth off

"Bullshit." Number Eight always had been the one most likely to call people out.

"There's nothing you can do Elizabeth." Five snarled "You don't have powers, you're a liability."

"I'm a liability? _I'm_ a liability?" Elizabeth asked. " _You're_ the one that keeps running around causing chaos without telling us. We're trying to help Five, but we can't do that unless you get your head out of your ass and realise that you can't do the impossible alone."

"You tried last time and you all _died_. I found your bodies in the rubble. I-"

"Last time we didn't have you." Elizabeth cut him off "Last time we most likely had no idea what was coming until the threat came to us so we'd have been disorganised and unprepared as hell. This time, we know something's coming, even if we don't know what."

"Why are you so determined to help?"

"Because, while most of you appear to have missed this fact, we're family. And family sticks together."

"I can't watch you all die."

"And I can't let you go at it alone. We already lost one brother because he went in alone. Hell, we lost _you_ because you ran out alone. Please, _please_ don't put us through that again."

"What do you mean, he died because he went in alone?" Elizabeth froze.

"There was a mission." Luther explained "Ben went off on his own, none of us noticed the sniper until it was too late."

"We thought Ben was powerful enough to handle it himself. He wasn't."

"It was my fault." Elizabeth stated, her voice blank. "I made the call, I told him to go off alone. I'm the lookout, I should have seen the sniper. It's my fault."

"We want to help Five, you don't want to see us die, but we don't want to see you die. We can help you, you just have to let us."


	5. Seven Seconds, That Is All The Time You've Got To Make Your Point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter's so late, I had a bit of trouble with some of the sections.

"Is there anything you might be able to tell us about the night this place got shot up?" Agnes paused as the man asked his question. First Elizabeth, now him. Agnes was starting to suspect that her younger coworker knew far more about what was going on than she let on.

"Do you remember anything about the boy from that night?" The woman asked, blunt and to the point.

“I didn’t really notice him." Agnes replied, "He and his father were sitting over there.” she gestured to the corner of the bar.

“We’re just concerned for his safety,” said the man. “It’s a dangerous world out there. Wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to him.”

“Are you with the police?” Agnes asked. The first detective she'd spoken to that night wasn't even a detective, who knew who these people were.

“We were hired by his family to get to the bottom of things.” The woman stated.

“So, if there’s anything you can tell us,” The man cleared his throat. “We’d…I’d really appreciate it.”

The woman turned to leave, but, while Agnes wanted to leave Elizabeth out of this mess, if they really were looking for a missing kid, the tattoo information would be helpful. “Actually, there was something…He had, um, a tattoo on his wrist.”

“A tattoo?" The woman asked.

"Yeah, a tattoo. An umbrella in a circle. I remember thinking it was strange because my coworker, Elizabeth, she has one exactly like it. And so do both of her brothers"

"They do?"

"Yeah, they were all part of that Umbrella Academy thing when they were kids."

"Your coworker, Elizabeth, where can we find her? We just want to ask some questions."

"Elizabeth has nothing to do with the shooting."

"Of course not, it's just- it's suspicious that she has a tattoo _exactly_ like the kid, isn't it?"

"My coworker isn't involved in any of this." Agnes repeated. God knows Elizabeth got into enough trouble thanks to her two brothers. She didn't need any help in getting into more.

"Look, we just want to ask her some questions."

"Then you're welcome to come back in a week or so when Elizabeth's holiday is over. Her father died recently. I'm not sending any more trouble her way."

"The Umbrella Academy, huh?" Hazel asked as they left the shop "We might want to do some research before we go in guns blazing."

"I'll go see what I can find out about this academy" Chacha replied. "You go see what you can find out about this 'Elizabeth'."

* * *

My name is Vanya Hargreeves and this is my story.

We were never a real family. We were our father’s creation, family in name but not in fact.

In the end, after our brother Ben had died, there was really nothing connecting us. We were just strangers living under the same roof, destined to be alone, starved for attention, damaged by our upbringing, and haunted by what might have been. We all wanted to be loved by a man incapable of giving love. Our father never missed an opportunity to remind me that I was ordinary. A hard thing for a little girl to hear. If you’re raised to believe that nothing about you is special, if the benchmark is extraordinary, what do you do if you’re not?

* * *

Life in the apocalypse was- hard. Tiring. Lonely. It had been months and there was no sign of life other than him anywhere. Whatever had wiped out humanity had killed the animals as well and the dust and ash had choked the life out of many of the plants.

Climbing over the rubble of another half-destroyed building, his foot hit a piece of metal, sending it skidding down the street. Curious, Five ran over to it. It had writing on it, and it was broken. Half of the letters were scraped off, but the last word was still readable.

**_Hargreeves_ **

One of his siblings had lived here. Maybe even more than one of them if they'd stuck together. He looked back at the building, the stairs were still standing. When he'd found them in the ruins of the academy, he'd thought they'd never left, that they'd all lived and died in that miserable house. But at least one of them had left. Looking at the piece of metal again, he noted there was a letter after the surname.

_**Hargreeves, E** _

Elizabeth. Elizabeth had lived here. He raced up the stairs, skidding to a halt when he spotted a door with an umbrella in a circle on the wall next to it. Most of the apartment was gone, but there was a metal box in the middle of the floor with something white taped to it. A note.

_Dear Five,_

_If you're reading this, that means I'm not around to give you this stuff myself, and neither are Diego or Klaus. I'm sorry. I'm sorry we aren't there whenever you pop up again. Inside this box is a record of some of the stuff you missed. I hope it helps._

_Elizabeth_

_(+ Diego & Klaus)_

_P.S. The code to get in is the day we first went out to Griddys._

Five smiled to himself as he read the note. Of course she picked that night. It was a good night, Diego and Luther had got along for once, Allison hadn't rumoured anyone and Vanya had joined them. They'd 'borrowed' some money from Mom and snuck out, eating doughnuts until they puked.

13/10/01

The first thing he noticed was a book. A book with Vanya's face on it.

_EXTRA-ORDINARY_

_My life as Number Seven_

The second thing was the tapes. Dozens of tapes, all neatly labelled, most in Elizabeth's handwriting, but some in Diego's and even a few in Klaus'.

_Our 19th birthday_

_House warming_

_Our 23rd Birthday_

_Our 28th birthday_

_Vanya's book_

_Diego's fights_

_Vanya's Orchestra_

_Allison's movies_

_Allison's wedding_

_Our 25th birthday_

**_Dear Five_ **

The other thing in the box was a video player with solar panels attached to the top and a screen. Hands shaking, he pushed the tape labelled _Dear Five_ into the player and pressed the button. The machine came to life and Fave stared, transfixed, as his sister's face appeared on screen. She was older than she had been when he left, but younger than she had been when he found her body.

_"Why are we doing this?" A voice asked. Elizabeth took a step back to reveal Klaus and Deigo sat on a bed behind her._

_"It's for Five. When he comes back, so he knows what he missed."_

_"What makes you so sure he'll come back?" Diego asked, messing with a knife._

_"You think Five'd just abandon us? You might not have been watching while we grew up, but I did. Five loves us. Like, destroy the world levels of loves us. He'll come back. I know he will."_

_"Ben says you're being sappy."_

_"Really Klaus? Putting words in Ben's mouth? How despicable."_

_"Someone's bringing out the big words."_

* * *

There were eight of us originally. Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Five, Ben, Vanya, Elizabeth. Or, as far as our father was concerned, One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight. We never found out if there was a reason for the order, or if it was just random, but these numbers became a crucial part of who we all grew to be. Had we been given different numbers, I'm certain we would have turned out differently.

At first, we thought it was based on powers, with the higher numbers being stronger, but then where were Elizabeth and I, the powerless ones, the highest of all? Then we thought maybe it was based on how willingly we listened to him, but there was no way Klaus was more obedient than Ben. Later we debated whether or not it was the order our powers manifested themselves, but we discovered Klaus' powers last, previously believing the ghosts to be his imaginary friends.

No matter what the numbers meant, they damaged us all anyway.

Five ran away when we were thirteen, Klaus fell into drugs at fifteen and Ben died at seventeen. Allison ran away to Hollywood, Diego snapped and snarled at anyone who tried to get close and Elizabeth hid in the basement and spied on us all, watching our every move. I left for school in Paris. Luther alone stayed.

* * *

Five stared at the five siblings sat in front of him.

On one side of the room was Luther, hunched over in his chair like it would disguise the size of him. Luther who saw the rest of them as his responsibility. Luther

Next to him was Allison, sat up straight with her legs crossed, looking every inch the star she was.

On the other side, Diego, Klaus and Elizabeth were sat on the couch. Well, Klaus and Elizabeth were. Diego was perched on the arm next to Klaus, rather than taking the space in between Klaus and Elizabeth for some reason. Then, Klaus laughed at nothing and- oh. Ben was sat there. He'd noticed that they had a habit of leaving a space between the three of them—often between Elizabeth and Klaus, none of them had fully managed to shake the habit of sitting in number order despite how hard they'd clearly tried—but Klaus had never mentioned that Ben was still around. Then again, Five had never asked.

Diego was tossing a knife up and down as he waited. Elizabeth had some sort of puzzle in her hands. Klaus was talking to Ben and probably not paying the slightest bit of attention to the rest of them.

* * *

Luther was the golden child. Number One. He got all of our father's affection and attention and praise. By the time Five left, in Luther's eyes, Father would do no wrong. By the end, Luther alone believed in our father and his goals. Luther alone believed the Umbrella Academy were doing the right thing.

As far as I know, the only time any of us have spoken to him since we left was Allison's wedding.

Being Number One made him the rule follower, I think. Part of him had to prove that he was better than the rest of us, and that resulted in him telling on us when we snuck out. He was always the first to fall back in line when our allotted half an hour of playtime a week was over. (By contrast, Klaus was oft the last to fall in line, but he was always pushing the limits).

Luther's power is his strength, one of the fond memories I still have from before Five left, is all seven of us sat on a table as he lifted it. As we got older, he only grew in strength carrying, I think, more than just the physical things. He was the leader, it was his responsibility to bring the others home safe and that weight, the weight of our siblings' lives, must have been far heavier than anything Father could make him lift.

* * *

After he'd watched the tapes—cried tears for the lives he missed, the siblings that had grown up and died without him, the brother that never made it to adulthood—he turned to the book.

_EXTRA-ORDINARY_

_My life as Number Seven_

Quiet, shy little Vanya had written a tell-all book, had she? From the video with Diego, Klaus and Elizabeth's reactions to it, it probably wasn't very flattering to any of them.

* * *

Diego was Number Two, and I don't think he ever moved past that. If Luther was determined to meet our father's ridiculous standards, then Diego was determined to go against them. He challenged Luther at every turn and, while he didn't have Allison or Elizabeth's gift with words, he knew how to sharpen them and make them hurt. He got under our skin, said things that stayed with you long after he'd gone.

Diego was Number Two and he let it define him. He left the academy on our eighteenth birthday, Klaus and Elizabeth on his heels, but he couldn't leave the superheroing behind. They each had their own addictions, those three, we all did really but it was the most obvious in them, and Diego's addiction was being the hero, saving the day. Someone called for help and he just couldn't stop himself from jumping in.

He was Number Two in our father's eyes, so he attached himself to Grace, the robot created to be our mother. In his eyes, the only good thing our father ever did for us was give us Grace. She helped him with his stutter, endlessly patient with him, especially when compared to our father—who wouldn't let Diego speak on TV until he had it under control.

The other thing about Diego that always stood out was his anger. We all got angry at times, aside from Klaus really, but Diego and Elizabeth took it to a new level. He was always yelling, ungodly tantrums turning into screaming matches as we grew older. He always threw knives, and you could tell when he was annoyed at someone, because the knives were always closer to hitting them than anyone else. Luther had the most close calls.

* * *

"So, what, exactly, ends the world?" Allison asked

"I don't know."

"Wait, where did the eye come from?"

"Luther had it."

"Wait wait wait, let me get this straight, you found us all in the rubble of the academy aside from Ben—who's already dead—and Vanya. Right?"

"That is correct."

"Then where the hell did you find Vanya?"

"I didn't."

"What do you mean, you didn't find Vanya?"

"I mean, I searched for forty years but never once found her body. I found all of you. I found Elizabeth's house, Vanya's apartment, Diego's crappy backroom but I didn't find Vanya's body."

* * *

Allison was a narcissist from day one. She always had to be the centre of attention, her name in lights. She's the one people are most likely to recognise, the only one of us that really stayed in the public eye. Her power is one people are instantly wary of, it isn't something you can prepare for after all.

I have very few memories that are just me and my sisters, even fewer that I would call fond. I do, however, remember 'girls nights' in Allison's room, she had the biggest room, the three of us talking and painting our nails, doing mini fashion shows. Klaus regularly interrupted, as fond of skirts and dresses as we all were.

To my knowledge, she never used her powers on me, but she regularly used them on my siblings when she was annoyed with one of them. Father only put a stop to it after she almost killed Diego by rumouring him to jump down the stairs. Luther caught him before he could jump, but it was a close call. Mostly she just rumoured us into giving her our pudding.

* * *

Five stared down at his dwindling supply of food. He'd have to move soon. He didn't want to, there was shelter here, he knew where everything was, his _siblings_ were here. He'd abandoned them once, he didn't want to leave them behind again. He stuck his hand in his pocket, feeling the trinkets they'd had. The necklace, the coins, the mouse, the knives, the _eye_. He was still no closer to figuring out time travel, to going back and stopping whatever killed his siblings. Still no closer to destroying whoever stole Luther's warm hugs after bad training and missions, Diego's dumb ~~stories~~ lies to get them to do stupid stuff. No closer to eviscerating whoever eliminated Allison's calculating look and stubborn scowl, Klaus' silly little rhymes that always made him laugh. Still no closer to finding what happened to Ben and Vanya—not even Vanya's book or Elizabeth's tapes told him _how_ ben died, just that he was dead—still no closer to wiping out whoever struck down Elizabeth's cunning and his family's dysfunctional, unconventional love for each other. 

* * *

Klaus was the middle child, or as close as you could get to the middle in a house with an even number of children all more or less the same age.

Out of all of my siblings, he is the only one where I have no idea where he ended up. I know he's a drug addict and that he's still alive, but beyond that, I have no idea. 

Back when we were still numbers, Four was the most vibrant, Two, Six and Eight all caught up in his light. He was always laughing and joking, it was common to find him just dancing around the kitchen when Father wasn't home. The four of them had what they called their 'even numbers club'. Klaus was the one that started it, but as far as I'm aware they kept it going until Ben's death, maybe even beyond that.

He lost his light when we were eight. I don't know what Father did to him, but he became quieter, more subdued. It was around this time that he started doing drugs, something that only got worse over time despite Elizabeth's never-ending crusade to get him clean. She'd given up by the time I left, we all had.

* * *

"Elizabeth, do you still have the key for you spy equipment?" Five asked.

"Yeah. It's back at home though. I took it with me when I left." Elizabeth replied, grabbing her keys off the table "I'll run back and get them."

"Why?"

"To piss Daddy Dearest off. He may have made the tech, but I'm the one that mastered it. If I can't use it, nobody can."

"Can I get a ride? I'm pretty sure I left my jacket at yours."

"If you've hidden drugs in my house-"

"Relax. I know better than to do that after last time."

"Anyone want anything while we're out?"

"Some doughnuts would be great." Diego called.

"I already told you, criminals don't get doughnuts, Diego." Elizabeth yelled back as the front door shut behind her and Klaus.

* * *

Five was the sibling I was closest to and the only one of us to never take a name. He discovered his powers fairly early on, and was the first to master his abilities, even if they did act up when he was sick. He was always the most frustrated by the rules and regulations our father imposed on us, even if he was always the first to training and the last to leave. Five liked to push boundaries and surpass limitations, he was always searching for a way to be better. Our father, however, was the sort of man that only accepted advancement when he could control it. Five and his powers were something our father could not control. Klaus and Ben, who were equally powerful, were not threats to him. They were scared of their own abilities. Five was not. When Five started asking about time travel, well, a part of me knew it was only a matter of time before he tried it, no matter what our Father said about it.

He left at breakfast and, like the rest of our siblings, he left without saying goodbye.

I hope he's alright, wherever he ended up. I hope one day he'll come home, pull us back together as a family. His departure was the thing to crack the academy, surely his return would be the first step to fixing it.

It never truly felt like he left though, six months after Five ran out, our father had a portrait of him painted. He called it a memorial, but we knew better. It was a reminder. A reminder to do as we were told lest we end up like Five.

* * *

"Happy Birthday." Five muttered, staring down at the circle of graves. As far as he could work out, it was the first of October. His thirtieth birthday. He'd officially become the oldest, his siblings all dead at twenty nine—Ben dead at seventeen. "It's been a while. I told you when I moved that I wouldn't be able to visit as much, I'm sorry I missed last year." He clenched his fists before picking up the bag by his feet, slowly going around and placing an item on each grave, just like he had every year since he'd buried them.

For Luther, a book on astrology he'd found in the ruins of the library. Five wondered if he ever did go to space like he always dreamed of.

For Diego, he'd searched and searched until he finally spotted some of Mom's old cross-stitch. 

For Allison, he'd stumbled across a collection of posters and promo pictures for her movies. He hoped she'd appreciate it, Allison never did something unless she could be proud of it.

For Klaus, a stuffed octopus, another toy on the pile. He'd loved throwing those things at the others to see who ducked.

For Ben, a copy of his favourite book.

For Vanya, a slightly dented violin to go with the piles of music he'd found of the years.

For Elizabeth, an old camera.

* * *

Ben was the quietest of my siblings, most often found in the library with a book. He hated his powers, the fact that they meant he always came home from missions covered in blood. I don't know exactly how his power worked, he never talked about it, but there was a portal in his stomach. A portal to an eldritch being.

When the Umbrella Academy is mentioned now, he's always "The one who died."/ I heard fake condolences from hundreds of people the months after his death, people sent more gifts and flowers than any of us could be bothered counting. I wanted to scream at them all. A few words at a funeral and they thought they knew my brother? yes, he was kind and he was quiet, but he was just as much of an asshole as the rest of them when he wanted to be.

My brother is not your tragedy.

If Five leaving cracked us, Ben's death is what shattered us. We were held together with glue and string by that point, sticking together out of obligation and an inability to run away more than anything else. Father wanted to keep the academy at the house, under his control, like animals in a cage.

We broke out anyway.

Five showed us the lock, Ben the key, and whilst they're both gone, I cannot forget them.

* * *

"Number Eight Hargreeves, more commonly known as Elizabeth. She was the Umbrella Academy member known as The Control, the one Reginald Hargreeves liked to keep out of the public eye. Probably Number Five's sister if the names are anything to go by. I found her address and she's only really in contact with two of her siblings, Number Two and Number Four."

"The knife thrower and the one that can talk to the dead," Chacha replied, dropping a book on the bed. "Give it a read, it's basically a Hargreeves family handbook. In summary, One had superstrength and was the leader but hasn't spoken to any of them in years. Two can throw knives really well and has a hero complex. Three we need to watch for, she can control minds. Four's a junkie and pretty useless. Five's the one we're after. Six is dead and Seven and Eight are powerless."

"We need to be sneaky about this then."

"No, we need to grab one of them-not Three-and see if we can figure out what Five's up to."

"We visiting Miss Hargreeves first then?"

* * *

Elizabeth was the only other child in the house without powers. But she was still part of the academy. She was their lookout, their spy and command centre, warning them about incoming enemies and hidden foes. Father called her The Control. I oft wondered why, if there was more to her name than simply being mission control, but Elizabeth has always like her secrets, liked her blackmail. She has no powers, so she made her own, spying on us all and turning our own secrets against us. Much like Allison and her rumours, Elizabeth's best weapon in her arsenal has always been her words.

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words leave scars that last a lifetime.

Elizabeth, much like Diego, spent a lot of her time angry. In all honesty, the only one of us that never really got angry was Klaus. But Elizabeth took her anger to a level only Diego reached. But, Diego let it show, he screamed and yelled and threw knives. Elizabeth let it to bubble and boil inside of her, like a volcano waiting to erupt. Her anger showed itself with poisonous words, hissed insults and whispered threats. It was everything moved slightly, or one little vital thing missing when someone had especially annoyed her.

I asked her, once, after Ben died, why she was so angry all the time. I don't think I could forget what she said that day, even if I tried.

"My anger is mine" She said, seething, boiling, molten rage in her eyes. "He cannot take it from me. He stole my name. My childhood. My chance at a normal life." She spat, poisoned words on her sharp teeth and even sharper tongue. "But my anger is mine, and he cannot take it." It felt like I was hanging on a precipice as she spoke, magma below me as her eyes flashed and, even now, I cannot figure out of it was a trick of the light or Elizabeth herself making them flash. But she walked away, the ledge vanished and it felt like something broke.

I haven't seen my sister since.


	6. Two Birds On A Wire

Elizabeth paused at the door to her house. It was open.

"Hey, we locked the door when we left, right?" Klaus asked, peering over her shoulder.

"Yep."

* * *

"Someone go get the phone" Five called as it went off, disrupting his train of thought. How was he supposed to calculate who's death could avert the apocalypse if there was constant noise?

"I'll get it." Allison replied, leaving the room. Diego and Luther turned back to their- well, it was far more likely to be an argument than a conversation knowing those two. "WHAT?" Allison's scream echoed through the house, startling Diego so badly he fell off the arm of the sofa he'd been perched on. The door slammed open as Allison raced back in. "We need to go."

"Go where?" Luther asked

"Elizabeth's. Apparently, and I quote, there are assassins in her guest room." Five froze. The commission. Fuck. And they'd gone after Elizabeth and Klaus, the completely ordinary one and the high one.

"Diego, Luther, you two come with me to get Elizabeth and Klaus. Allison, go check on Vanya." Five ordered "If the Commission went after Elizabeth they may we have gone after Vanya too."

"Commission?" Diego demanded "What commission?"

"No time." Five snapped "The longer we stand around talking, the more chance there is of Klaus and Elizabeth being dead when we get there."

* * *

"Why do you have a gun back here?" Klaus hissed as his little sister pulled a gun out from under her bookcase. They'd taken cover behind the sofa in the living room and the assassins clearly didn't know where they were as they were still shooting up the rest of the room.

"I like to be prepared" Elizabeth shot back, like that explained anything. It really didn't. "Now stop complaining. Me hiding it back here might just save our lives." Thankfully, Ben had had the brilliant idea of checking the house before they entered so Elizabeth could call their siblings from the hall. Hopefully, they arrived soon, there wasn't much space to run and hide in Elizabeth's house. There was movement behind Elizabeth and Klaus felt his heart leap into his throat. The assassin in the blue mask was pointing a gun at his baby sister.

"Look out!" He shoved her back as the assassin pulled the trigger, the bullet hitting his shoulder as they fell which, _ow_ , but it was better than Elizabeth's back.

"Klaus!" Elizabeth scrambled to her feet, pointing her gun at the blue assassin. "Stay the hell away from my brother!"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Fuck. The pink one was pointing her gun at him. "Shot my partner and I'll kill your brother. Cooperate and everyone gets to walk away alive. Now, Number Four, Number Eight," Klaus froze. They guys knew who they were. They knew full well they were basically going after the Umbrella Academy and they didn't seem to care. This was bad. "where's Number Five?" And it just got worse.

"You want us to betray our brother?" Klaus asked, trying to keep their attention on him as Elizabeth tried to keep her gun on both assassins at once. "Yeah, we're assholes, but not family betraying assholes."

"Klaus," Elizabeth hissed through clenched teeth "I know doing the sensible thing is a novelty for you but please shut up before the assassin decides to shot you again."

"Listen to your sister Four. Where's Number Five?"

"We don't know." Klaus replied before Elizabeth could. Elizabeth was _horrible_ at lying. Blackmail, bending the truth and straight-up threatening to murder were fine but the moment she tried to lie all subtlety went straight out the window. "He vanished last night. Haven't seen him since."

"You sure?" The pink assassin looked at the blue one "I think we need to jog their memories." Klaus froze as he felt cold metal against the back of his head.

"You shot my brother and there won't be anywhere in time or space left for you to hide." Elizabeth stated, her voice cold. "I will hunt you down and I will make you beg for death." There was no emotion in the words, no fear or anger just a cool level calmness. "I don't care if I have to destroy everything else to do so."

"Is that supposed to be a threat?" Pinky asked. Klaus let out a sound of pain as she jostled his shoulder yanking him to his feet.

"It's a promise." Klaus wanted to know where his little sister had gone. Elizabeth didn't go cold and emotionless threatening to murder people. That was Diego's thing, or Five's, not Elizabeth's. "You so much as lay another finger on _any_ of my siblings and I'll make you regret the day you were born."

"Big talk for someone who's never taken a life." Big Blue stated, coming to stand behind Pinky. Great, now there were _three_ guns pointed in his general direction. Elizabeth wasn't going to shoot him, but it was still unsettling.

"Oh." She tilted her head to the side, a small smile spreading across her face and, by that point, Klaus was pretty sure she was possessed. "You have no idea what I've done to keep my brothers safe." There was a bang and Pinky stumbled back, her shoulder bleeding. Elizabeth had just shot her. "Now, do you really want to keep testing my patience or are you going to let my brother go?" Blue's response was to pick up the bullet hole-ridden coffee table and throw it at her before yanking Klaus out the door when Elizabeth ducked.

"KLAUS!" Elizabeth's scream was the last thing he heard as something hit the back of his head and the world went black.

* * *

"Klaus!" Diego yelled as he ran through the open front door "Elizabeth!" The living room was a mess, plaster and dust covered every surface, the furniture was overturned and riddled with bullet holes. Elizabeth was knelt in the middle of the floor, her shoulders hunched and fists clenched as she stared at a gun on the floor in front of her. The assassins were nowhere to be seen. Neither was Klaus.

"Diego?" Luther called, following him in. "Shit."

"Elizabeth?" Diego asked, ignoring Luther as he knelt down, reaching for her shoulder only to have to jump back as an elbow came flying towards his face. "Hey. It's just me."

"Where's Klaus?" Five asked, jumping into the room. Elizabeth's head shot up.

"They were looking for _you_." She spat and for a moment Diego could have sworn her eyes looked purple. "They came here, tore up my home, took our _brother_ and they were looking for _you_."

"But they left you." Five stated, eyes narrow "Why?"

"Hell if I know." Well, that was a lie.

"We need to find him." Luther interrupted.

"No shit." Elizabeth climbed to her feet, still glaring at Five. "Hey, D, there's a box under my bed, left side against the back wall, like your knife case. Can you grab it for me?" Diego nodded, leaving the room and finding the case exactly where she said it would be.

"Why do you have this?" Luther asked as she opened it, revealing a screen on the inside of the lid.

"Same reason that I took the key." Elizabeth replied, powering it up "I'm petty and spiteful and like hell, I was letting Daddy dearest track me."

"Track? We have trackers?" Luther asked as a map of the city flickered to life, the house in the middle of it.

"Made us all swallow indigestible trackers before you went on your first mission. How do you _think_ I always knew where to send my robots to follow you? Haven't used the damn thing since I left." Elizabeth replied as eight dots started blinking on the screen. "here we go." She pointed to two close together "Ally found Vanya, that's good. Huh, Five's is still working." She pointed to the cluster of four "And this one over here is Klaus." She jabbed the dot that was moving around.

"Is that Mom?" Diego asked, gesturing to the dot in the mansion.

"Ben. I can't see Mom on this."

"Well, now that we know where he is, we need to go get him."

"Is running in without a plan really our best idea?"

* * *

"Allison?" Vanya asked, surprised to see her sister.

"Hey." Allison said, side-eyeing Leonard.

"Leonard, this is my sister, Allison." She introduced him

"Wait a second," He pointed at her "I know you! You were in that movie! The movie the- you were the lawyer, the tough one in the wheelchair, right?"

"Yeah." She laughed slightly "Yeah, that was me."

"You didn't tell me your sister was a movie star." He smiled "You were in that Umbrella thing too, weren't you?" Allison opened her mouth to respond but no sound came out "But you weren't in that, were you?"

"No. I was kinda like the fifth Beatle of the family."

"Never really did like the Beatles, more of a Stones guy myself."

"Um, I'm sorry to interrupt but, uh, could we talk in private? There's a- problem."

"What problem?"

"It's-" She sighed. "Can we talk in private? It's a family matter."

"Oh, uh, sure." Leonard took a step back. "I'll be over here when you're done Vanya."

"We think someone's after Five and that they might go for you to get to him." Allison stated the moment Leonard was out of earshot.

"What?"

"We got a call from Elizabeth saying that there were assassins in her house shooting at her and Klaus and that they were looking for Five. They're both basically powerless right now, Elizabeth actually is, and we were worried that someone would come after you too."

"Well, I'm fine."

"Just- come back to the house, please? There's safety in numbers-"

"So Diego can glare and Elizabeth can yell again? I'm fine Allison, most people don't even realise that I'm your sister. Stop trying to be my mother and worry about your actual daughter."


	7. Three for a funeral

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Note, next week I'll be updating Not Broken (Just Bent) instead of this and every first Friday of the month until one of the stories is finished.

"Elisabet, you don't have powers, you should wait at the house."

"Wait at the house, _wait at the house_? Don't you fucking dare tell me to 'wait at the house' Diego Hargreeves."

"I'm trying to protect you-"

"I don't need your protection, Diego. I haven't needed _any_ of you to protect me since we were kids."

"No- we already lost Ben. I don't want to lose you too."

"And I don't want to lose Klaus. Look, D, I promise that if I die I will look God in the eye and make her send me back. Now can we go?"

Elizabeth was out of the car and running towards the motel before they'd even stopped.

"Elizabeth! Wait!" Five yelled "They'll kill you." His sister turned to look at him, her face blank.

"They can try." She spat "I have spent the past _decade_ keeping Klaus alive, I'm not about to fail now!"

"And I have spent just as long keeping _you_ alive." Diego snapped. "Stay with the group."

Klaus froze at the sound of running feet. The female assassin turned to face the door. The male one had gone out for something.

"ELIZABETH!" Diego yelled from outside as the door crashed open. Elizabeth had apparently thrown herself at it as she was now crouched on the floor on top of the broken door.

"Hi." She stated, standing up. "You've got something of ours. We want him back."

"How the hell-" The woman started

"You know who we are. You _know_ what we can do." Elizabeth cut us off. "And yet you messed with us anyway." There was a flash of light and Five was behind him, undoing the bindings. "I warned you. I told you not to mess with my family. It's not _my_ fault you were foolish enough to assume that my lack of powers makes me harmless." Diego and Luther were stood in the doorway, watching Elizabeth with wide eyes. Klaus had the feeling that they hadn't known about this side of Elizabeth either. This cold, ruthless mockery of their sister. "I'll tell you a secret," She lowered her voice as she leaned forwards "It makes me the most dangerous of all." The woman lunged for the gun on the side table. Elizabeth was faster. "Bye-bye" She smiled, shooting the woman in the chest.

"Where did _that_ come from?" Diego demanded.

"I'm an angry person. This isn't news." Elizabeth replied, dropping the gun and turning her back on the woman she'd just shot.

"No. That wasn't anger. That was- that was emotionless, carefully calculated."

"Should have seen her earlier" Klaus muttered, "If I didn't know better I'd swear she'd been possessed."

"Are you okay?" Ben asked, even though Elizabeth couldn't hear him.

"Ben wants to know if you're okay," Klaus repeated.

"Are any of us really okay?" Elizabeth paused, staring at the vent before twisting her head from side to side.

"Elizabeth?" Luther asked.

"There's something in the vent."

"What?"

"There's something in the vent. I- I can see a glow coming from the vent out the corner of my eyes but when I look properly it's gone."

"Okay, you've lost it." Diego wrapped a hand around her arm. "Time to go."

"No! I wanna see what's in the vent."

"Ben votes for seeing what's in the vent."

"I do not!" Klaus hissed at him. Elizabeth ignored them all, pulling free of Diego's grip. Curious now, Klaus dropped down beside her, Diego hovering over their shoulders.

"I'm telling you, there's something in here. See, it's already open." She pulled the front off the vent and removed a briefcase from its depths. "Huh, wonder what's in it."

"Money, hopefully." Klaus replied, digging his nails in the seam. Elizabeth glared at him, her fingers on the clasps holding it shut. "Hey, if there's money in this thing, do we get to keep it?"

"Give me that." Diego grabbed the briefcase as Elizabeth flipped the clasps open. The last thing Klaus heard was Five screaming as the world vanished in a bright light.

"NO!"

* * *

Dave stared at the three strangers that had appeared out of nowhere at the foot of his bed. Two men and a woman- why was there a woman in the middle of their tent?-and one of the men was wearing a skirt. The other had some sort of harness full of knives. The sound of raining bombs filled the air and knife guy and the woman were instantly on alert-wait, where did the woman get a knife from?

"What are you three standing around for?" Sarget Harris yelled "Why are you messing with a knife? Someone get those idiots guns!" The knife guy shoved his sister(?) and the other guy behind him as Alex approached with three extra guns.

"You just dropped in?" He asked.

"You could say that." The guy in the skirt replied. The woman muttered something under her breath that didn't sound very flattering.

"D, gimme a gun."

"El-" Knife guy - D apparently - started only to be cut off by the woman.

"Gimme a gun or I'll stab you. Don't test me." She hissed.

"I think you should do as she says, man." The other guy butted in.

"Shut up Klaus." The other two both snapped.

* * *

"Who the hell are you people?" The guy that had been yelling before--Diego was pretty sure he was Sargent someone or other--demanded as they all settled down on the bus.

"Uh-" Klaus clearly had no idea what to say.

"Are you a girl?" The Sargent turned on Elizabeth.

"No?" Klaus tried "That's uh-"

"El." Elizabeth neatly stepped in "That's my brother Diego and this is Klaus."

"El what?" the Sargent stared at her with narrowed eyes.

"Guerra." And Elizabeth was still bad at lying. Good to know.

"Diego and El Guerra," Diego stated, taking over before Elizabeth blew their cover with her atrocious lying skills. Seriously, how was she that bad at lying? "That's Klaus Hertz."

"And just where did you three come from?"

"You sure you want to know?" Klaus asked, his hands spread and smile wide. The man looked all three of them up and down, Klaus' tattoos, Diego's knives, Elizabeth's clearly female appearance.

"On second thoughts, I don't care."

* * *

"Okay, the briefcase is a time-travelling machine." Elizabeth started talking the moment they were alone in the new camp. "We're in 1968 in the middle of the Vietnam war, we may die at any minute and while theoretically, we can use the briefcase to get home we have no way of knowing whether opening it again will take us home or somewhere worse." She concluded. "Anything else to add?"

"Uh, it's just the three of us?" Klaus suggested.

"That too. Wait, _three_? You mean Ben isn't here?"

"No. We were all touching the briefcase when we travelled. He wasn't. Wasn't even touching me. Probably why Luther and Five aren't here either."

"Point." She paused "D, gimme a knife."

"Why?"

"I need a haircut."

* * *

There was something off about the trio of newbies. Aside from the fact that they appeared out of nowhere and El was clearly a woman that was. There was no adjustment to living in a warzone that most new recruits had. They followed orders without complaint and didn't push to rules at all. They acted like this wasn't their first war. Dave had been watching them since day one and, while there were clearly holes in their story from blatant lies, most of it was true. Diego and El--whatever that was short for, because it had to be short for _something_ \--were siblings. They looked too similar and were too comfortable with each other to be anything else. If he didn't know any better, he'd say Klaus was their brother too, but that was stupid. Klaus was white and Diego and El were clearly not. No white household would take in one kid that wasn't white, never mind two, though it could be that Diego and El's parents took Klaus in. Klaus was definitely the cutest of the three though. Not that Dave was looking.

* * *

"Control, enemies?" Diego asked as they crept forwards through the jungle. Dave paused at the name. Who was he talking to?

"Kraken, three on your left. Séance, four to your right." El whispered back,

"Got it." Klaus replied, aiming to the right while Diego faced left. They were way to coordinated to have never done something like this before.

"Space-" El started only to get cut off by Klaus.

"Space isn't here."

"Dave- two ahead. Can you get them?" Dave stared at El, how did she know there were two ahead. "Dave! Enemies!" She snapped.

"Right." He could ponder their strange codenames later. What, exactly, did Control, Kraken and Séance have to do with Klaus, Diego and El?

* * *

"Hey, what's El short for?" Dave noticed the woman in question still ever so slightly as he asked Diego.

"Eliseo," Diego replied, "he uses El because he thinks it sounds pretentious."

"Go, Diego, _Go._ " El replied, pettiness dripping from every word.

"El I swear-" Diego hissed

"You'll what? Go on, whatcha gonna do D? Whatcha gonna do?" El taunted, getting up in Diego's face, clearly the siblings had hit a breaking point.

"Just because I shared your full name-"

"Ooh, are you having a catfight?" Klaus interrupted.

"And the idiot's back." Diego muttered "Great."

"Hey!" Klaus protested, pouting cutely.

"Don't tell me you're not an idiot Klaus." El snapped "I have a lifetime worth of stories that say otherwise."

"Yeah, and most of them are due to him." Klaus waved a hand in Diego's general direction.

"Not my fault you believed me."

"You told me that paintings came to life at night and that that's why Mom loved watching them."

"We were nine. You should have known better."

* * *

"Davey needs a codename," Klaus announced out of the blue one day. "It feels weird to have you calling an actual name on missions."

"The idiot has a point," Diego replied, cleaning one of his knives. "It is strange." over the past couple of months, Dave had heard El call for Rumour, Horror and Boy as well as Space only to get either Diego or Klaus pointing out that they weren't there.

"What are your codenames even from?" He asked. The three paused.

"They're from something we did when we were kids." Diego eventually replied.

"Gotta admit, never thought we'd be using them again." El added.

"I'm The Séance." Klaus waved his hands in the air "the lovely El is The Control and Diego over there's The Kraken."

"Why?"

"Well, D thought Kraken sounded cool, I'm Control because I'm usually the one keeping an eye on things, like a mission control."

"And The Séance?"

"Oh, that's for the irony."

"And the other names?"

"What other names?"

"You given orders to people who've never been here. Space, Rumour, Horror. Who are they?"

"Space is short for Spaceboy. His name's Luther. The Rumour is Allison and The Horror is Ben." El stared at the ground "They- they're not around anymore." Oh.

"Still! Davey needs a codename!" Klaus exclaimed, clearly trying to alleviate the tension.

"Do I really?" Dave asked, only to get ignored as the other three started bouncing ideas between them.

"The Solider?"

"A little too on the nose."

"You say that like none of the others were dead giveaways."

"Not Soldier."

"Fine. How about The Gryffin."

"You just want to keep the mythological creature motif going."

"I like The Cutie."

"I'm not calling Dave anything that sounds like a pet name Klaus."

"Fine."

"The Captain?"

"That'll just make ranks confusing."

"The Star. As in the Star of David." Diego and Klaus paused the argument and stared at El.

"I like it."

"Better than anything this idiot's come up with."

"What do you think Dave?" Oh, so _now_ they wanted his opinion.

"Might take some getting used to,"

"Does this mean Dave's Nine?" Klaus asked.

"No. For the same reason giving Eudora a codename didn't make her Nine." El replied. And they were back to the cryptic statements.

* * *

"Bomb ahead." Klaus muttered, Diego and El broth froze. Dave had long since given up asking how he knew things like that."

"Where?"

"About ten metres that way." Klaus gestured to his left.

"Kraken, can you hit it from here?"

"Not without knowing exactly where it is."

"Great. We have two options, avoid or disable by hand. Star, any suggestions?"

"There's another squad coming through after us who won't know about it" Dave pointed out.

"Great. Okay. Watch my back. I'll deal with it."

"Control-"

"Mechanics are my forte Kraken." El cut him off "It's what I'm best at. I'll deactivate the bomb, all you need to worry about it making sure nobody shoots me while I do it." Dave watched as she slipped away, praying that she came back in one piece.

He was half expecting the explosion, that didn't mean his heart didn't stop in his chest when he saw El slam backwards into a tree.

"ELIZABETH!" Klaus shot forwards, Diego right behind him. "No! You're not allowed to haunt me."

"Elisabet,"

"Hi."

"You could have died and all you have to say is 'hi'? You're a horrible sister." Klaus moaned.

"I lived, didn't I?"

"You set off a bomb."

"I cut the wrong wire, activated a countdown and didn't get far enough away in time." She coughed. "I think I bruised my ribs." She admitted. "Hey Dave." Diego and Klaus both froze.

"Shit."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Elizabeth Hargreeves is a Gryffindor and you cannot change my mind.


End file.
